Ianto Returns
by blackromanceangel274
Summary: AU: When Ianto Jones is somehow brought back to life he tries to track down Jack, with the help of a common welsh girl he finds him, but is Ianto really as good as he looks when he returns from the dead?
1. Chapter 1

_Summery: Ianto somehow comes back to live, body and all, completely healed and left without a scratch or scar or anything. With the help of the young women currently living in his flat, he tracks down Jack and they are reunited... But, what is the condition of Ianto's return. _

**Chapter One - The Return:**

Efa Disgleirio walked up to the door of her haunted flat. She turned and waved goodbye to her friend Mari as she took out the keys. Ever since she moved in two years ago, she'd felt the presence of a ghost, she'd never seen it, she'd only noticed things getting moved from one place the other, going missing sometimes the objects turned up again and sometimes they didn't. Every now and then she heard the ghosts voice. It would shout or whisper, sometimes it felt like it was just talking, causally. She's heard it say 'Jack' that was the one she heard most, usually it was a shout, as the ghost was looking for someone. It was a sad presence. Not threatening which is why she contuied to stay there, that and she didn't really have anywhere else to go, her mother was dead and her father had no desire to see her since she came out as bisexual a few weeks ago. She put the keys in the lock and turned it, pushing the door open. She stopped dead in her tracks. There, in the middle of her living room was a man. Looking down at his hands, putting them to his face. He didn't seem to notice her and she knew that she should call the police and runaway but she was frozen to where she stood. Her golden eyes fixed at where this man stood. Was this man real or was he the ghost she'd been longing to see. He looked up at her, as if finally noticing she was there.  
"Good morning" he said, smiling nervously.  
"Afternoon" she replied still not moving from the doorway. "Who are you?"  
"Jones, Ianto Jones" he waved and took a few deep breaths. He looked at his hands once more and touched the table by his side. He put a hand over his heart, there was a heart beat. "I'm alive again!"

A few minutes later they were sitting on the sofa, at opposite ends, sipping tea.  
"This is nice tea" Ianto told her, looking at her with a nervous smile.  
"How are you alive?" she asked. "I mean, you were a ghost, you haunted me for two years, since I moved in. How are you alive? Don't you remember being dead?"  
"I remember dying and I remember suddenly being here, but I don't remember the time in between. I have to find Jack... What, what year is it?"  
"2012"

"three years... I've been dead for three years."  
"Who's Jack? I heard you calling for him sometimes... Was he a friend, brother?"  
"He was my boyfriend... Well, we never really spoke about what we were, he hated the word couple. We went on dates and we... Slept together. There was love there, he never said it but I could feel it"  
"Wow. Well, now that you're alive again, go find him and be with him again. Leave me alone" she set her mug down and tucked her dark red hair behind her ears.  
There was a moments silence as Ianto went over how real the situation is. What if Jack had already moved on and got someone else, what if there was no position for him at Torchwood? What if Gwen was dead too? What happened after 456 invaded? Who else deid? Did they get any knew members? He was afraid that Jack wouldn't want him back.  
"If he loves you like you say he loves you, he won't be afraid to take you back no matter what" for the first time since they sat down, Efa looked up at him. He looked back at her for a few seconds but eventually he looked away, back at his empty mug.

"I'll need a ride" he said timidly.  
"You've got to be joking" sure she had a car and she was aloud to drive it, but he was a stranger... Though there was nothing he could do to her in a car that he couldn't have done to her now, sitting here, in her living room drinking tea. With a great sigh and a racing heart she nodded and picked her handbag back up, it had her car keys in it.  
"Thank you" he was beyond grateful but he still wasn't sure he wanted to see Jack, he wanted to go to Roald Dahl Plas and keep an eye on the entrance, maybe even pop down the Tourist Centre and see if anyone goes in or out. The car ride was silent. Efa couldn't remember when it had ever been this quite in her car. She always at least had the radio on but she didn't think appropriate to put it on in a situation like this.  
"I'm sorry you got dragged into this" Ianto apolaigzed as they drove.  
"It's okay" she lied, it wasn't okay but she didn't mind. She'd needed some adventure in her life. This was just it. "You don't seem like a crazy psychopath to me." She didn't say it but she was interested. This guy used to be a ghost, he used walk around in her house shouting for someone called Jack and now her she was, driving her now alive and well ghost around to Roald Dahl Plas to see who this Jack was.  
"I'm sorry that you can't have your flat back, I'd be more than happy to give it back to you but, I don't have anywhere else to go."  
"You can keep it, maybe Jack will let me stay with him... If he doesn't think I'm some kind of alien or something."  
Efa laughed but she didn't realize how serous all this was. That would be exactly what Jack would think, he'd have several test done on Ianto and then maybe, just maybe let him come back into his life but there's no way to know for sure that Jack would be able to open back up to him and let him in the way he did before.

"We're here" she said, parking up and looking out across the landscape.

Ianto's blue eyes darted across the ground and up to the sky, looking at each building and remembering the events that happened there while he was alive. _'No much has changed' _he thought to himself. He didn't see anyone he remembered from Torchwood but it was unlikely that -even if they were out- that he'd see them. If they weren't in the hub then they were investigating something and he wouldn't know where to find them anyway. He was trembling. He wasn't sure that taking the invisible lift was a good idea but they wouldn't let him in through the tourist center. What was he going to do. Efa noticed his hesitation and said  
"Would you like me to go with you? Just until you find Jack?"  
"No, it's not a good idea."  
"Are you sure, maybe they'd want to talk to me anyway, after all, I did find you and bring you here."  
Dammit... She was right.  
"There's way to know I'll even be allowed in. Follow me, stay behind me, do not speak unless I tell you too" he ordered.  
She nodded, now scared of what kind of people Ianto used to hang around with. She walked behind, kept quite and aware. Putting on a brave face, she didn't want him to think she was scared, she was but maybe that's what he wanted. Maybe he wanted to scare her. She cursed at herself for getting into this mess. She should have moved out when she realized the house was haunted. She should never have agreed to drive him here, or ask if he wanted her to go with him. Why couldn't she have just let him go? Why did she always have to go and stick her nose where it didn't belong.

Please Review and thanks for reading :) x


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two - Seeing Torchwood:**

Gwen looked at the CCTV as the alarm went to inform her that someone had entered. She only the back of two heads but she went down into the office, to get rid of them. Jack was out interviewing the victims family for their current case. It was just the two of them now. She got up from her desk and walked into the office,  
"hello" she said without looking up as she entered.  
"Gwen?" came a familiar voice, that she didn't at first recognise until she looked up. When she did look up she had her breath taken away from her. She wasn't sure what to do, she wanted to believe it was Ianto but at the same time she knew it was too good to be true. She didn't find the strength to reply, she just pulled her gun out and aimed it at him.  
"Wow" Efa shouted, putting her hands up straight away. She expected a lot of things but this was not one of them.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"  
"It's me" Ianto told Gwen, putting his hands up slowly too and looking back at Efa, trying to reassure that it was okay. "It's me, Gwen-"  
"How do you know my name?" She asked, coming out from behind the desk and opening the door in the wall. "Go on, then. In you go!" She directed both Efa and Ianto into the hub and led them down to the cells.  
"Ianto, what's going on?" Efa asked, trying not to cry.  
"Don't worry, they won't hurt you. Just do as they say!"

Gwen put the two of them into separate cells and looked at them. It looked like Ianto, sounded like Ianto, acted like Ianto but it couldn't be Ianto. Ianto was dead, she'd seen his body. Jack had held him while he died, Jack felt him go. This couldn't be Ianto. She didn't know what to do.  
"Now, I'm going to call the boss and you two are going to stay here until you tell the truth!" Gwen shouted, jogging back upstairs to the main hub area and tapping at her ear piece.

...

Jack was just going through a few routine questions for the victims family when he heard Gwen come in.  
"Jack, Jack are you there?"

Jack excused himself from the room and stood in the hallway,  
"What is it Gwen?"  
"I'm not sure, if I'm being honest. Can you just, come back to the hub as soon as you can. I really need to get your opinion on this, please. You're not going to believe it!"  
"There's nothing I wouldn't believe now. I'll be there in 10 minutes!" Then he went back in and finished the questions, gave his respects and apologized for their loss and then got in the SUV and went back to the Hub. He wondered what Gwen was talking about, after letting her know he was on his way back he stopped off at the chip shop to get some lunch and then continued his journey. What was so bizarre that he wouldn't believe it? She had sounded rather shaken. What was going on, there had been a lot of strange goings on the past few days. A lot more rift activity. Just the other day there had been five weevils in the Cardiff town center and another nine around the Roald Dahl Plas. More things had vanished into the rift and more things were coming out. Not just aliens. They had a cave man yesterday. It was a nightmare, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something big was coming. Something really big and that it wasn't yet at an end and wouldn't be at an end for a very long time.

He was just taking one day at a time and keeping it together. Staying brave and strong in front of his team. (Which was just Gwen at the moments) He had meant to hire new members but he kept comparing everyone to his old team and getting disappointed when they didn't fit. Gwen was doing well at doing Ianto's old work and he was glad that she was doing it because he couldn't bare hiring someone else to do Ianto's work. Ianto was the only one that did it the way it was meant to be done but Ianto was dead, he was gone and he wasn't coming back. And Gwen was doing very good with it, no one was going to be hired to fill Ianto's place. Jack didn't want Ianto to look down from heaven and fell replaced. Hence besides the one night stands he had on the odd occasion, Jack hadn't been with anyone since Ianto's death. He let out a deep breath with the memories of Ianto flooding back to him. He'd done his best to hide the last memory he had of Ianto. That was him dying. He kept on to the happy ones. The dates, the sex, the flirting, the laughter. He pulled into the underground car park and entered the Hub, smiling at Gwen as he entered.  
"Okay, so what is so unbelievable that I won't believe it?" he asked.

She led him down to the cells in silence. At first Jack noticed Efa, who had her legs pulled up, knees hiding her face and she appeared to be crying, she looked at them when she heard someone coming but she didn't say anything. She looked perfectly normal to him. He looked at Gwen quizzically.  
"It's not the girl that will shock you, it's who she brought with her" she told him. Leading him on still to the next cell where Ianto was.

Even before Ianto looked up Jack knew it was and he was blown away. This was impossible. Gwen was right, he didn't believe it. This had to be some kind of sick joke.  
"Jack" Ianto said, getting up and walking over to the glass, putting his fingers into the holes.

Jack looked at him, this couldn't actually be Ianto.  
"What are you?" he asked, looking away. There was no way he look into Ianto's eyes and question him. "Are you an alien?"  
"Jack, you know I'm not."  
"Is this Jack?" Came Efa's voice from the next cell.  
"Yes" Ianto told her, his eyes still on Jack, "Jack, please. Believe me. It's me Ianto. Jones, Ianto Jones!"  
Jack just stormed out. He couldn't hang around down there anymore. Ianto was crying by now Gwen tried not feel sympathy because she was sure that it wasn't Ianto she followed Jack into the hub and didn't look back, although it killed her not to.

"They're not going let me go, are they?" Efa was defently regretting agreeing to this. But she did have to admit that the rush was amazing.  
"I'm sorry for dragging you into this, I'll talk to them when they come back down, see if they'll let you go." He'd tried not to cry but he wasn't doing a good job.  
"Are you okay? I guess this isn't exactly the reunion you wanted, huh?"

"Not what I had in mind, no" Ianto pulled himself together and stood up against the glass again. "Jack Harkness, you come down here and you talk to me!"

Please Review and thanks for reading :) x


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three - Ianto Jones:**

It was quite in the hub now. Jack had sent Gwen home an hour ago. It was now 7:30pm and they hadn't gone back down to the cells since Jack returned. He tried to keep his mind busy, shuffling through paper work, thinking about doing it but convincing himself it wasn't important and that it could wait. He tidied up his office a little, sipped the coffee Gwen made him before she left, only now did he notice that - although Gwen had gotten good at making coffee - now that there was no one else to make it - that it still didn't taste the way Ianto used to make it. It was drinkable and tasted like a coffee shop coffee but it wasn't a Ianto coffee. There was something Ianto did that made his coffee the best coffee in the universe, no matter where you went, you would never find anything that tasted better. He looked over the rebuilt Hub as he stood in his office doorway. It was similar to the old one, it took a year to get it rebuilt and working the way it used to. It looked mostly the same but there were a few differences. The cells now covered the whole bottom level, the target shooting room was on the other side, one level below. The offices had been relocated to different sides of the main area, little things like that. He was surprised that Rhys allowed Gwen to return to Torchwood, after everything. He was grateful because he wouldn't have been able to handle everything alone. This place felt empty now, one year in this place and it still didn't feel like home. Something was missing, there were still a few things he had to put in the Hub, there wasn't a conference room anymore, he also wanted to put in a panic room, for break ins and emergencies. There were a lot of things he wanted to add, an actual bedroom for himself because he was currently sleeping on the sofa in his office. He felt like none of the things he wanted to add, would make the difference and he couldn't figure out why.

Sighing loudly he walked back into his office, sat at his desk and pulled up the cells that Ianto and Efa were staying in on the CCTV and he watched them... Well, he watched Ianto. The girl seemed to be a little on edge but trying not to show it, she acted cool and calm, laying down as if trying to sleep. Ianto was asleep. Jack, intentionally, smiled at the sight. Ianto, whether that was the real Ianto or not, looked so cute while he slept and Jack had missed watching him sleep and hearing his small light breaths. He let out another deep sigh and went down to the cells, he lent against an empty one and looked over at 'Ianto'. He could tell that Efa was still awake, she laid perfectly still, not looking at him, not in anyway draw attention to herself. She wasn't trying to hard to appear asleep but she wasn't exactly not trying to pretend she was asleep. She was quiet and still, waiting to see what he was going to do. Her eyes were closed but she could hear the silence, the only sound was breathing. She wanted to talk to Jack, she wanted to ask him why he was doing this, where she was, who he was. What happened. Even in a situation like this she couldn't hide her curiosity. Eventually she sat up and pressed her back against the cell door, staring at Jack through the glass, his eyes never left the sleeping Ianto, who layed curled up and the ledge attached the left hand wall, that had a pillow no more comfortable that concrete.  
"You're Jack, aren't you?" she asked, hating how shaking her voice sounded.  
"Yes" Jack replied simply. His blue eyes still fix on Ianto who stirred a little in his sleep, turning over to face the other way. Jack smiled slightly again, it really is a sight to behold.

"Who are you?" Efa questioned, she wasn't about to let him keep her here without knowing what was really going on. She wasn't going to be a quite prisoner, who wallowed in self pity while sitting in their cell doing as they were told.

"Captain Jack Harkness" he told her, finally taking his eyes off Ianto and looking at her. He saw her red eyes, blotchy face and tear stained cheeks.

"He's been searching for you... You two were a couple, right?" she asked, stretching her legs out in front of her.  
Jacks eyes darted away from her, falling to his lap and then gazing back at Ianto. It was difficult question to answer. They had been in a relationship (he chose to use 'had' because it was unclear that even if this was his Ianto, would the relationship still be going on?) but they never talked about they were exactly. Neither of them liked the word couple. They never said that they loved each other either, Ianto said it when he was dying but that's what people do when they're dying. He knew that he loved Ianto and he knew that Ianto loved him. Ianto never said it because Jack never said it and Jack never said it because he was afraid to say it. Saying it made it real and when it was real, it got scary because as soon as you say the word love, you commit to it and whatever he loved and committed to was taken from him just as quickly as it came.

"He did love you and I'm sure he still does" her voice was soft .

Jack didn't understand why she was being so nice to him when he had locked her up in a cell and made no promises about ever letting her out.  
"I know he did... But that can't actually be my Ianto" Jack told her after a pause.

"It seems impossible doesn't it" she put in. "It seems like something out of a horror movie, the dead come back to life and they're not the same as they were when they left, people die and it turns out it was them all along and then they have to be killed again before they wipe out the entire human race... He doesn't look like a homicidal maniac to me."  
"They never do" Jack told her, crossing his arms across his chest. "I guess we were a couple, or like one. I never meant for a relationship to form. My intentions were just to get closer to him. I wanted to be close but I didn't want to fall in love with him, I couldn't afford to and I still can't afford to. It was, at first, just sex. Then, something happened and I asked him on a date... Things got serious and then, I lost him."  
"Now, you've got him back."  
"How do you know Ianto?"  
"I don't know him, personally. I just gave him a lift here"  
"Why?"  
"He asked me too."  
"That's it?"  
"Mostly."  
"Mostly?"

She was about to contuie when Ianto stirred a little more and then Jack got up and rushed out, fearing that he'd woken Ianto up. He went back into his office and looked at CCTV. Efa hadn't moved an inch, Ianto stirred again and then rubbed his eyes, sitting up, stretching and looking around, as if remembering where he was, then it settled in and lent against the wall, head back, arms crossed.

Efa was wrong, it wasn't like a horror movie at all. It was like a dream and that's what scared Jack the most, it either was a dream and it would soon be ending, he'd wake up on the sofa, Ianto still dead and having to carry on as normal or it was real but soon about to take such a horrible turn that he wished it was a dream. And since in dreams you don't know it's all a dream, it had to be real. Jack turned the CCTV off and once again set about shuffling through his paper work.

Please Review and thanks for reading :) x


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four - Testing:  
**

Gwen arrived early the next morning, only by a few minutes. The cog door rolled open and she glanced up at Jacks office, he appeared to be sitting at his desk. She guessed he was still looking at the CCTV, although he wasn't. He'd finally started on that paper work he'd been putting off since it arrived a week ago. She went up the stairs, going to make some coffee. She looked in on Jack as she passed, amazed to see him staring down at some papers and not up at the computer screen she knocked on his door.  
"Come in" he said.  
Gwen entered and when Jack looked up at her she could see that he'd stopped sleeping again. He started sleeping a few days ago, only for a few hours and only everyother night but it was better than no sleep at all. Now, he'd stopped again. He looked back down at the papers in his hand and sighed loudly, pulling the women out of her thoughts.  
"What is it, Gwen?"  
"I was just going to make some coffee" she said. "I was thinking, maybe I should take something down to the cells, they must be hungry by now. We can't starve them."  
Jack looked back up at her. She was right and he knew it.  
"We don't know if they're human, Gwen" Jack was so tired and he hated himself for considering that Ianto was no longer human. But, he knew Gwen was right. "I have to go and see them anyway. Just, go any make coffee."

With that he got up and walked out of his office, pushing past Gwen who was still in his doorway. It was her turn to sigh now.  
_'There he goes again'_ she thought._ 'Shutting me out.'  
_She walked to the kitchen area and began making coffee for her and Jack. Jack walked down to the cells, stopped outside the door for a second, thinking that he had no idea what he was going to say. What if the girl had told Ianto everything he said last night? If that really wasn't Ianto, he could use everything Jack said against him. Jack composed himself and opened the door, walking first over to Efa.  
"What's you name?" he asked her, standing as far away from the cell as possible.  
"Efa Disgleirio" she answered him, she didn't seem afraid of him anymore.  
"Last night you said you had a car, where is it?"  
"Roald Dahl Plas. It's a silver Golf Series 6... Gwen, took the keys off me when she threw me in the cells."  
"I don't need keys" Jack said, getting up and rushing out.  
Ianto didn't move. Still laying down the 'bed' in the cells, Jack hadn't wanted to talk to him? Had Jack even considered that maybe, just maybe Ianto wanted to talk to him? He did, Ianto wanted, no, Ianto needed to talk to Jack. Ianto knew it sounded impossible, he didn't understand himself. How was he alive? Why was he alive? He was just happy that he got to see Jack again, he'd hoped that Jack was happy to see him too. He guessed he'd been wrong.  
"Do you think he'll ever talk to me?" Ianto asked Efa at long last.  
"I don't know, think about how hard it must be for him. He thought he'd lost you for good. It might take awhile for him to pluck up the courage."

Jack found the car with no difficulty at all, he pressed a few buttons on his wrist strap and the doors unlocked, he opened the passenger side door and lent across, picking up the bag that was on the seat and going through things, there were a few cd's in the glove box, a packet of chewing gums and a pair of sun glasses. Finding nothing of interest Jack locked the car again and went back to the Hub, sitting in his office, he put Efa's bag on the edge of his desk and siped the coffee Gwen had made him and left there while he was out. Gwen came in a little while later and he asked to her sit, she told him she only came to see if he was back but he insisted that she sat down.  
"What do you think about our..." Jack was searching for the right words. He didn't want to use the word prisoner on someone who could possibly be Ianto Jones. The Ianto Jones. His Ianto Jones. "Guests" he said at last.  
"I think we should run a few tests, find out what we're dealing with" Gwen told him, shifting uncomfortably. He rarely ever asked for her opinion. Jack was the Captain, he gave orders he didn't ask for them.  
"Do... Do you think it might be actually be Ianto down there?" Jack's eyes left Gwen's face.

The women looked up at him, she didn't think he'd ever actually ask. She could see since yesterday that he meant to but she never actually thought he would ask. Did she think it was the real Ianto? She wasn't sure. She knew only the tests would tell the truth.  
"I think we need to do some tests and get results before we start making assump-"  
But Jack inturrputed her.  
"No, Gwen. I want to know what you think. When you look at Ian... I... Him, does it seem like it could actually be him? Is there a part of you that goes, only the real Ianto could look like that?"

Gwen went to say something but then she stopped herself. If she said yes and it turned out that she was wrong, she'd look stupid for believing it and even worse for letting Jack believe it. If she said no and it did turn out to be Ianto, she'd be left with the guilty feeling for not believe him. Of not showing loyalty to the team... She had to choose her words carefully.  
"I don't think it's impossible" she said at last. "Although, of corse, the only way to tell is to tell him how much of a mess the archives are and wait for his reaction" she tried to lighten up the mood and with the soft smile on Jacks face, she thought it had worked.  
"Ask them if they want anything to eat or drink, they have to be fully energized for the tests, tell them we'll start off slow... I'll take another coffee" he said before she left the room. Gwen nodded without turning around and went down to the bottom level of the hub and walked into the second row of cells, were Efa and Ianto were.  
"Hi" she said, standing where both could see her.  
"Gwen" Ianto let out a breath, "where's Jack? I want to talk to him."  
"He's in his office, calm down, you'll talk to him soon enough. I came down to ask if there was anything you wanted to eat or to drink... We are going to be running a few tests later on so, you'll need your strength" Gwen explained.  
"Tea, white, 2 sugars please. Some biscuits if you got 'em. I'm starving" Efa brightened up at the mention of food. She was so hungry, poisoned or not, she was eating it.  
"Ianto?"  
"Just Coffee, please Gwen."

Jack was running a background check on Efa. She had been adopted when she was 3 years old, found abandoned in a field when she was 5 months old. _(He wondered if she knew... He made a point of brining it up to her later, it wasn't going to be an easy conversation but an aurate background check meant birth parents as well as adopted parents.)_ She had been in and out of hospital a lot, for silly things mostly. Bumping her head on things, walking into things, falling out of bed. By the looks of it her adopted mum was very over protective. They girl never went on any school trips, always went to the doctor for check ups regularly and for any injections. Efa apperntly had congenital analgia _(meaning she feels no physical pain at all)_ and had skin that was so sensitive that the smallest knock would bruise her, the slightest prick would make her bleed for minutes on end. Her bones were apparently strong though. Reports saying she'd fallen out trees, off climbing frames, been hit by other girls at her school and not one bone had ever been broken, just bruises, cuts and grazes. Efa was training to be a doctor... _(Maybe when she's fully trained, they did need a doctor. Jack, despite his many years alive, on earth and various other planets, didn't know very much about any body type medically. He could identify the hot spots on almost every single alien that ever fell through the rift... They needed a doctor.)_ She seemed to have good grades, good school reports although behaviour wasn't an issue as long as they knew right from wrong and when to stop fighting the rules. She's studied psychology and sociology, gotten the highest marks in both. She was a clever young lady, since she was only 23.

It was an impressive background check, he printed it out and put it in a file, labeling it and tucking it under his arm as he went down to the medical bag, almost walking right into Gwen on his way out the door. She handed him his coffee and he started setting up the things needed for the tests while Gwen gave out tea and coffee to the 'guests', as Jack had called them.  
"Do you believe me Gwen?" Ianto asked, sipping his coffee and looking at her through the glass in the door.  
"I'm not sure" she replied. "I want to... But... It's impossible. I just doesn't happen. People don't just come back from the dead!"  
"I'm just as shocked as you are" Ianto notified her.  
"Not as shocked as Jack" Gwen said, looking at Ianto seriously. "He's already lost Ianto once, so, if you are the real Ianto-"  
"I am."  
"He will only lose you again... Jack gets his lover back just so his lover can be torn away from him... Again!"  
"Jack is alright though, isn't he?" Efa asked. She'd learned a lot about the man last night, even though he spoke little, she picked up on things from the way he spoke and held himself.  
"I doubt it, he was doing paperwork this morning when I arrived... I don't think he sleptt at all" Gwen checked her watch and decided it was time to led the two 'guests' up to the medical bay.  
"He rarely ever slept though, did he" Ianto mentioned as he walked in front. Gwen at the back to make sure no one tried to escape. "He slept a few times when we spent the night together. Even if it was only a few hours..."

The welsh-man forgot his words as he looked at Jack, sorting things out in the medical bay.

Jack turned upon hearing his voice, he straightened up and stiffened slightly. He nodded at Ianto civilly and Ianto nodded in return. No matter how much he wanted to hold Jack and kiss him, he couldn't. Jack had to be sure first, Jack deserved to be sure, Ianto owed him a lot, especially after leaving him and not putting up a fight. First things first, finger prints. Gwen ran them through the system while Jack took blood samples. Being careful when he tended to Efa, remembering her sensitive skin.  
"Efa's prints are not recognised by the system but I'm loading them on there now and..." she squinted as she read Ianto's results. "It's a match for Ianto. His fingerprints are an exact match." She almost jumped at Ianto right then and there, but it was important to act professional espicailly when there are guests.  
"I told you it was me!" Ianto said, pulling the sleeves on his shirt down.  
"So would any alien who was trying to imitate you. Anyway, some shape shifters can fake fingerprints" Jack handed Gwen the blood samples and she started to analyze those as well. She listened but tried not to make it obvious. Unlike Efa who had no shame with people knowing she was earwigging.  
"Jack, come on, it's me. It's me, Ianto. Your boyfriend" the young man tried not to sound to hurt but his voice did give him away a little. Jack had walked away a bit. Still in the medical bay just a little away form the group, trying to regain his professionalism and not let his personal problems get in his way. Ianto put a hand on Jacks shoulder, for awhile Jack allowed the touch to remain before turning around and telling Ianto to sit back down, there were still a few tests to run over.

"Ianto's blood sample confirms that it is indeed our Mr Ianto Jones" Gwen turned the screen so that Jack could see for himself. "There are no signs of alien or other supernatural creatures in his blood at all. He is 100% human."  
_'Stay professional'_ Jack told himself. _'You can apolagise to him later._ _Just figure out how he came back and at what cost.' _

Gwen gave Ianto a little hug and a slight apologies, he forgave her because he understood. If roles were refused he wouldn't have believed it either. Gwen turned the screen back up and got to analyzing Efa's sample. Suddenly the alarm sounded to announce that alien DNA had been found. Everyone turned to Gwen now. Then to Efa.


	5. Chapter 5

(Hey guys, I know it's been a while but my internet was down. It's working again so I was able upload this chapter and I hope it makes up for my away time x)

**Chapter Five - Kokkeriakians:**

Efa was terrified. She had no idea what was going on. Now she was back in the cells again. She didn't understand, why were they not telling her? She deserved to know. Efa just sat on the ledge in her cell. What the hell was a Kokkeriak? And what the hell was Banton? She had so many questions but Gwen shoved her back into the cell before she'd had time to ask anything. She lent forward trying to remember anything that might give her an answer but there was nothing. Nothing at all. She stood up and braced herself on the wall, breathing deeply to calm herself down. Couldn't the results be wrong? Could the machine be wrong? She let out a frustrated scream and kicked the wall.

Jack watched her on the CCTV in his office. He'd sent Gwen down to the Archives to retrieve the file on Kokkeriak, he was a little fuzzy on the details and Ianto had gone to make coffee. Jack turned the CCTV off when there was a knock at the door, it was Ianto.  
"Come in" Jack said, getting up to meet Ianto halfway.  
"Coffee, sir"  
"Ianto" Jack put the coffee down on his desk and then walked back over to Ianto, looking at him, the tears in his eyes shinning in the unnatural, low lighting. He took Ianto's hands in his own and looked at them. "You are okay, aren't you? You don't feel tired or hurt. You're not in any kind of pain?"  
Instead of answering him Ianto kissed him. Pulling him close to tell him it was okay. He forgave him. Jack, who was surprised at first, responded to Ianto's kiss and deepened it. Pulling away for air and holding Ianto close, tears falling from both their eyes.  
"I'm sorry." Jack said, one hand gripping the back of Ianto's head tightly, the other still holding his hand. Ianto wrapped his free arm around Jacks waist.  
"It's okay" he replied, his voice soft. "It is unbelievable. I didn't believe it myself and I still don't" Ianto looked up into Jack's eyes. "I'm just glad I get to see you again." Jack just looked at the welsh man in his arms. He wasn't sure what to say. He just pulled Ianto into another hug and held him.

Gwen looked at them through the window, she had the file but it didn't seem right to knock and interrupt the moment. Clearing her throat she raised her hand and knocked on the door. When they broke apart and told her to come in, she stepped through the door and held to file up.  
"Thanks, take it to the sitting area in the downstairs, we'll be along in a minute" Jack told her with a reassuring smile.  
Gwen nodded and left, closing the door behind her. She was happy that Ianto was back, but what did it mean? Could Ianto die again? And if he could, wasn't this doing more harm than good? She shook her head, bringing herself out of her thoughts as she took her seat and waited.  
"Maybe you should go home" Jack told Ianto, looking at his hands and not in his eyes. "You've had a long day. Go home, rest."  
"No" Ianto told him, forcing Jacks eyes to meet his. He wasn't going home, not with Efa still locked up. She didn't deserve to be down there. She wasn't bad even if she was an alien. "I'm not going while Efa is locked up in the cells... She's not evil, Jack."  
Jack didn't answer, he just picked up his coffee cup and led Ianto to the main hub where they took a seat in the little sitting area he made to act as a conferrence room until he actually got one put in. Jack stood in front of his team and looked at them. He took the file and opened it up in front of him.

He scanned the page, picking out important information. Then he turned to Gwen and looked at her,  
"The blood test, what did it say, exactly?"  
"It said that there were traces of Kokkeriakian blood in her system. There was also traces of human blood. She might be part alien but she is part human too" Gwen answered him.

Jack looked back at the file, his eyes moving over the page once again. Then he turned to Ianto,  
"What do you know about her?"

"Not much, really" Ianto told him, honestly. "I know that she's lived in my flat for two years. She told me that I'd been haunting her."  
Jack was surprised by that, it wasn't that ghosts were real that was a surprise, it was that Ianto haunted her... Well, his flat.  
"She said, she heard me calling for you" Ianto finished. "When we meet she didn't really talk much about herself. She wanted me out and I'm not surprised. But she was helpful, gave a ride here, baring in mind that I appeared in her flat, took her completely by surprise and haunted her for two years. She was extremely nice."  
"What did you tell her about you?"  
"Nothing really. I told her what it felt like to die, she asked who Jack was I told her that we were..." he didn't want to admit that he'd called Jack his boyfriend or described them as a couple. Just incase, that's not what they were. "I told her about you and then she told me to leave, that's when I asked for a ride."  
"But she came in with you... She didn't just drop you off and go home?"  
"No. She said you might want to talk to her, after all it was her who found me" Ianto looked down at the floor.

"Well, Kokkeriakians aren't dangerous creatures" Jack went on to explain. "They attack if they fell threatened but are usually peaceful. They like to get close to humans but they're very easy to tell apart. Kokkeriakians don't wear clothes, they have four arms, two legs and one head with three faces. They have been known to abduct humans and mate with them... They keep the mother, (it's always a women) until the baby is born. The women returns to earth with no memory of the event ever taking place and the baby is kept for a few months to make sure it is strong and healthy and then they drop it of on earth." Jack produced Efa's file and he dropped it on the table, opening it and comparing it to the Kokkeriak file. "Efa was adopted when she was 3 years old but it says, she was found in a field when she was only 5 months old. Now, you'll notice" he flicked the file across the table so Gwen and Ianto could see it, he kept Efa's file. "Kokkeriakians have very strong bones however, they have very weak skin. They bruise easily, they bleed easily however, they cannot feel any physical pain at all."  
Ianto and Gwen looked up from the file and into Jacks face, this was amazing.  
"So, no matter what we do to her, she won't feel any pain?" Gwen asked.  
"Exactly" Jack nodded.  
"Amazing. Imagine not being able to feel pain."  
"It must horrible. You could fall over and have a really bad head injury but because it doesn't hurt, you'd never know until it was too late" Ianto couldn't imagine how awful it must be to live a life like that. Sure it was good because pain would never stop you from doing things but what it was really serious but because there was no pain, you'd never know. It must be horrible.  
"Ianto, since you're not going home can you at least take a shower. I'll put a suit out for you. Gwen, you're with me, we're going to finish a few test with Efa. There might be a Kokkeriakian file but there is not a Human Kokkeriakian file. Certain things might be different."

Then they all departed. Gwen went to fetch Efa from the cells. Jack went to go get Ianto a suit, he knew there were still a few locked up. All of Ianto's personal items from his apartment were placed in a container not to far away. He got back and put them just outside the door to the shower. Knocking on the locked door to let Ianto know it was there, then he joined Gwen and Efa in the medical bay.  
"I'd like to know why I'm still being held here" Efa said when Jack emerged from the level below.  
"Because, there are still a few tests we need to run" Jack looked over at Gwen, who was standing beside Efa, "Gwen, lets get started."

It was going to be a long afternoon. There were a lot of tests to get done. They wouldn't be able to do them all that day, so they would have to do some tomorrow but Jacks biggest concern was where would Efa spend the night. She didn't seem like a threat to earth to him but since she was being tested still she couldn't be left to herself, she couldn't go back to her flat alone and she couldn't stay in the cells again, Ianto was right, she deserved comfort because she wasn't a threat. He considered sending her home with Gwen but after what happened with Emma, he wasn't sure Rhys or Gwen would like it. He was hoping to have the hub just to him and Ianto tonight. Right now he had to focus on the test and it's results. Gwen was making notes of all the tests and there results. They'd only done 3 by the time Ianto came and took over the note taking.  
Efa had to be changed into something else. She couldn't wear something with metal on it because sometimes the tests could be effect by it. Luckily Gwen had been keeping a few extra clothes at the Hub and a pair of Pajama's sometimes if it was only a few hours until she had to return Gwen would just stay there and sleep on the sofa in the main area. The actual clothes she kept there because you never when you'll need a quick change in this line of work. Efa wasn't that much smaller than Gwen so the clothes fitted her fine. She wore a pair of tracksuit bottoms in grey and a t-shirt with a band on it that no one had ever heard of.  
The cholesterol test - Normal.  
The blood pressure test - High but not dangerously high.  
Body mass index (BMI) - Low (but the BMI test results are usually unreliable anyway).

Now, Ianto did the note taking, Gwen performed most of the tests and Jack just watched. God, they were under staffed. They needed a doctor.  
"You haven't hired anyone since I died?" Ianto asked.  
"I couldn't find anyone I liked enough to let them replace the old team"Jack told him.  
"They're not replacing us, they're filling a vacancy. When all this is over, you'll need to start hiring people... A medic would be useful!"  
"I already have my eye on one." Jack told him.  
Diabetes risk assessment - Clear.  
So far, so good.  
Allergies - Jam and lavender.  
"Jam and Lavender?" Jack noted. "I've don't think I've ever meet anyone with an allergy of Jam before."  
Efa huffed at him and smile. "Well, now you have."  
Those were to very different allergies. It was stated in the Kokkeriakian file that Lavender was a common allergy among them, so the Jam thing wasn't connected to her inheritance and could be over looked. Written in her file and not the Human Kokkeriak file.  
When all the medical tests were done, Jack called it all to a stop after the 13th test. Saying they'd missed lunch and that Ianto was get pizza delivered after that, they'd sit around and discuss what was going to be done next.

Gwen put all the equipment away, Ianto got some food and Jack led Efa up to the seating area in the main hub where they would eat and discuss.  
"You're not locking me up in the cell?" she asked, teasingly as she took a seat.  
"Not yet" he replied sitting down opposite her and looking at his hands as he picked at his nails.  
Efa eyed him with great curiosity. In front of her was an American man, who'd lost his boyfriend, for what he thought was forever, saw him again yet some how still managed to act professional even thought it was obvious he was both over-joyed and scared at the same time. She knew she wouldn't be able to cope if that had happened to her. But, that's it, it wasn't happening to her. She looked over her shoulder and watched as Ianto and Gwen hurried about the hub. Ianto going into the tourist office to wait for the delivery and Gwen putting this away and then joining them, taking a seat.  
"So" Efa said, leaning back and facing the others again. "Tell me about Ianto, has he always been this formal? Wondering around in suits, cleaning up after one, ordering food and making things 10 times easier?"  
"He insisted on calling me sir even after we started sleeping together" Jack told her, smiling at the memory. A week after they came back from the country, Ianto was still a little shaking but he was getting there. Jack asked him to stay late because he wanted to talk to him, the events that followed were not planned but that's what made it special. The next morning he woke up to find that Ianto was already awake and hurrying around in the kitchen area making coffee.  
_"Coffee will be ready in a minute sir" _he remembered. Chuckling at how Ianto had sounded when saying those words.

"You really do love him, don't you?" Efa asked, snapping Jack from his memories and back to the present.  
"Yes" Jack said.  
"You should tell him, I know you haven't but you should. I don't care what's stopping you. Neither of you will live forever and if you don't tell him, you'll regret it!"  
Jack and Gwen looked at her astonished. It sounded like she knew what she was talking about. No one said anything because Ianto arrived at that moment with Pizza and they ate away happily. Jack throwing looks towards Ianto and Efa through out the meal. Thinking that Efa was right but it wasn't easy to say it. It wasn't as easy as everyone made it out to. Espicailly if you immortal like he was. Efa and Ianto didn't look up at all, they were so hungry. The pizza tasted amazing. They decided that Gwen was going to take Efa home with her, she was going to tell Rhys that someone was going to be staying over however long it took. (She was going to say just for the night but there was no grantee that it would only be one night.) Efa agreed happily. It would be nice not to sleep on a concert slab. Even if she was going to spend a night on the Sofa. At 8:54 she said goodbye to everyone else and Gwen took her home; leaving Jack alone with Ianto like he wanted to be.

Jack was still thinking about what Efa had said before she left.  
_"You should tell him... if you don't tell him, you'll regret it!"_  
She really did know what she was talking about. But right now, he wasn't thinking about it. He was watching Ianto clean up the medical bay and he remember how much he had missed the sight of it. He missed the big things as well, like the sex, the dates and the dirty talk, naked hide and seek. But he found that the thing he missed most was the little things: watching Ianto sleep, his breath on his skin, watching him, holding him, kissing him, comforting him and being comforted by him. Their morning talks over coffee. Things like that, and it was good to know that he could now have those things once again. What he couldn't handle was the thought that Ianto might get torn from him again. He didn't think that he could handle that pain again. But like he said, Efa was right. He didn't want to live with the regret that Ianto didn't know how he really felt and although he would live forever, Ianto wouldn't and Ianto deserved that happiness of know that Jack loved him.  
Ianto could feel Jack watching him and he looked up at his boyfriend and smiled.  
"Should I put some coffee on, Jack?" Ianto asked, now happy knowing that Jack had accepted him back into his life, the way it all was before.  
"No thank you Ianto, it's been a long day. We should just get to bed" Jack waited for Ianto to come and join him in the main area. Then they walked up, hand in hand into Jacks office. Jack explained that there was no longer a bed but he was intent on putting one in there eventually and he apolaigzed that there wasn't a more comfortable place for him to sleep.  
"It's alright" Ianto said, his hands on Jacks chest, Jacks arms around his waist. Ianto looked at his hands and then up at Jack. "It's good to be back."  
Jack smiled and lent his forehead against Ianto's, their eyes locking.  
_'Now or never'_ Jack told himself, swallowing deeply.  
"I love you, Ianto." He said, his voice a little shaky and he looked away from Ianto's eyes.

Ianto was shocked. No, he was more than shocked. It wasn't that he didn't feel the same way, it was just that he'd never expected to hear Jack say it. He had thought for a long time before his death that Jack did love him, he never asked and he never expected to hear it. He smiled warmly and lifted Jacks head to look at him.  
"I know. I love you too" he said, kissing Jack tenderly.  
The tender kiss didn't last long. After breaking apart, Jack pulled him back for more. It felt good to know that Ianto knew how he felt and it felt even better to hear Ianto say it back. He knew Ianto felt that way but knowing it and hearing it, is different. This kiss was more heated and lead to a night of passion and need and lust but also deep love. Lips on skin, roaming hands grouping at every inch of skin they could find and pulling on hair, teeth nipping at exposed skin and the moans of pleasure and desperate panting for breath. Jack collapsed next to Ianto, to tired to carry on anymore. Jack was a custom to multiple orgasms but tonight, one was all he needed and Ianto was exhausted too. He was asleep before Jack even had a chance to say good night. Jack chuckled and kissed the top of Ianto's head, holding him close he whispered a sleepy goodnight and closed his eyes. Ready to get some sleep for the first time in a long time.

Jack slept for a good few hours, waking up at midnight, he was going to move and go upstairs into his office but he looked down and remembered that he had his Ianto back. He was holding Ianto in his arms. Ianto tossed and turned in his sleep, Jack held him closer, more protectively. Ianto only squirmed even more as if trying to push Jack away, he started moaning and mumbling but Jack couldn't hear what he was saying. Jack let him go, he didn't know what to do, he wasn't used to Ianto having nightmares. The only time he'd ever seen Ianto have a nightmare was after that thing in the countryside. Even then, Ianto wanted to hold him and was comforted by his touch but now all Ianto seemed to want to was move away. Jack tried again and he held Ianto tightly, trying to calm him down or wake him or just make him stop. Eventually Ianto sat up, screaming. Then, as if realizing where he was, he relaxed a little and fell into Jacks arms, shivering, sweating and crying.

(Please, review and thanks for reading x)


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six - Nightmares:**

_"We've gotta get you out of here. I can survive anything but you can't."  
"Too late. I breathed the air."  
"There's gotta be something, an antidote... Then I take it all back, all right? I take it all back. But not him! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Ianto."  
They sank to the floor, Ianto still in Jacks arms and Jack held him protectively and stroked his check with his thumb.  
"It's all my fault"  
"No, it's not"  
"Don't speak, save your breath!"  
"I love you."  
"Ianto, don't. Stay with me. Ianto, stay with me, please. Stay with me. Stay with me."  
"Hey, it was good, yeah?"  
"Yeah"  
"Don't forget me."  
"Never could.  
"Thousand years time... You won't remember me."  
"Yes, I will. I promise, I will... Ianto? Ianto, don't go. Don't leave me, please. Please... Please, don't."  
Then Jack kissed him. Although he was dead, Ianto could hear Jack talking to him. Feel his lips kissing him. Jack had brought him back to life with a kiss before... Surley this time it would work again. It had to, Ianto wasn't ready to leave yet. Things were just starting to get better for him. He couldn't leave Jack, everyone else Jack had ever loved left him. Ianto wasn't about to do the same but he couldn't seem to get his eyes open, couldn't find his voice to speak._

_Why wouldn't his eyes open. The next thing he knew, he was standing up, surrounded by darkness. He could feel something there, something watching him, something coming for him. He could feel it moving closer. He tried to run away but there was no where to run, it was dark but he kept running into wall no matter which was he turned. Suddenly, something had hold of him and he felt the life getting sucked out of him, he pushed away and stumbled to the other side,_  
_"Leave me alone" his voice was so quite he barley heard it himself. "G-go away."_  
_"Ianto" came a voice. A horrible, dark, cold, chilling voice. "It's okay."_  
_"No!" Ianto pulled away again as the creature held him, this time he couldn't get away._  
_"Calm down, it's okay. Ianto, it's okay" The voice was softening, it was becoming more welcoming but Ianto wasn't falling for it. He felt his entire body go cold but his face was still burning. He kept trying to free himself from this creatures grip._  
_"Wake up, Ianto... Open your eyes, Ianto, please."_  
_Wait... He knew that voice, that was_  
_"Jack" Ianto mumbled, in disbelief. This had to be a trick. The creature was playing a trick, using Jacks voice to get to him._  
_"Ianto, please wake up... For me, it's okay Ianto. I'm here, I've got you. Open your eyes!"_  
_So what if it was all a trick... He was already dead._

He sat up leaving the comforting embrace he was held in and he screamed. After the shock of waking up had worn off, Ianto looked around him... It had only been a dream, just a very bad dream. He was a mess. A shaking, weeping, sweaty mess. Jack didn't seem mind and Ianto allowed himself to be pulled back into the older mans arms, he felt safe in Jacks arms but nothing was going to get rid of the horror that haunted his sleeping hours that night. It was too real, to familiar. He had relived death, something he never wanted to do again. He shivered beneath Jacks strong arms and sobbed into his bare chest.

About an hour later Ianto found himself in the kitchen area, trying to shop his hands shaking enough to make coffee.  
"Ianto, stop" came Jacks voice from behind him as arms wrapped around his waist and a chin rested on his shoulder. Ianto jumped at the contact but relaxed when he remembered he was in the Hub, he was with Jack, he was safe and he melted into Jacks embrace. "Relax" Jack whispered his voice low yet somehow still demanding. Ianto turned in Jacks arms and face him, kissing him to tell him that he was okay. Jack still wasn't convinced but allowed the silence to hand for awhile and Ianto lent his head on Jacks shoulder and pulled him closer. Jack kissed Ianto's head and squeezed him tighter. He wanted to know what the nightmare was about but he also knew that pressuring Ianto into telling him wouldn't do either of them any favors. He felt so helpless, he didn't know what to do or what to say, Ianto was so vulnerable and Jack didn't know how to make it better. He could feel Ianto's hands still shaking against his back and Jack brought his hands up to Ianto's face and forced his head up, so they could look into each other eyes. There was still a hint of fear in Ianto's eyes and Jack had to look away because it was to much for him. He cradled Ianto's head's in his hand and let him know that he wasn't alone. He led Ianto the nearest sofa and they sat down, cuddling up to each other.  
"Can you tell me what the nightmare was about?" Jack asked after awhile, the silence and shaking was too much.  
Ianto just shock his head, shaking even more at the mention of it. He was able to keep himself from crying but Jack that Ianto was close to tears.  
"Okay, okay... You don't have to tell me now, just tell me when you're ready."

Gwen parked the car in the underground car park, Efa took her seat belt off and jumped out the car, waited for Gwen to get out of the car and lock it so they could walk into the Hub get the rest of it over and done with. There were only a few tests left and then a few medical questions and Jack wanted her foot looked at since she did kick the cell wall yesterday. They walked into the Hub, the alarm sounded as they entered and it woke both Jack and Ianto up.  
"Oh god" Gwen shouted. "Can the two of you please put some clothes on?"  
Jack laughed as Gwen looked away and closed her eyes. Jack looked at Efa,  
"You're not gonna look away?"  
"I've seen worse" Efa admitted shamelessly.  
"Right" Jack and Ianto went up to Jacks office, looking for something to put on.  
After getting dressed Ianto went and made coffee, Jack went back down stairs and took Efa and Gwen to the medical bay and sent Gwen to go and get all the necessary equipment.  
"Thank you" Jack said to Efa when Gwen was gone.  
Efa looked up at him, confused.  
"For what?"  
"You were right" Jack told her, crossing his arms over his chest and crossing on leg over the other as he perched on the table beside her. "I feel better now that he knows."  
Efa nodded knowingly. Jack tore his eyes from the floor and looked at her,  
"You said, I'd regret it... You sounded like you knew what you were taking about, care to talk about it?"  
"No."

Ianto appeared with coffee and a few waffles on a tray. Him and Jack didn't get the chance for breakfast and it was polite to offer some to Gwen and Efa too. Efa took one without a thought, when Gwen got back she shook her head but smiled thankfully. Then they got started. Efa was off that day, her mind wondering back to the day she let someone she loved go. Because she was unfocused most of the time she didn't realize what was going on and Jack eventually called for a break.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven - A Little Back-story:**

_"I love you" Alis Drew whispered in the ear of her lover.  
Efa stiffened against Alis' body as the other girl brought her arms up around her. The 19 year old girl got out of the arms folder around her and swung her legs to the side of the bed. This was bad, they couldn't actually be in love. Sure, their affairs were fun and there was a great many feelings running through Efa but love couldn't be one of them. They both agreed when this arrangement was made that their emotions were to run no deeper than friendship and lust. It was a way to relief stress after a long day and that was all. The two girls promised that they would not fall in love with each other. Sure it wasn't Alis' fault but Efa couldn't afford to tell Alis that she felt the same way. If love was what Efa felt too then there was a lot of fuss to be made after. They would both have to go away and tell their parents, everyone would know and there would be questions, nasty comments, dirty looks. Efa liked things the way they were. Sure she cared for Alis and would grief if Alis died or got ill but they could not be in love._

_Alis moved and looked at Efa, great worry building up inside her. What had she done? She'd let slip how she felt and now she was going to lose Efa forever._  
_"I'm sorry" Alis said in a low voice, using her hand to push her tight caramel curls out of her face so her green eyes could look upon Efa's naked back._  
_"No, your not" Efa spat out bitterly. She wasn't as angry as she sounded._  
_"I shouldn't have said it. Our arrangement was clear. I'm sorry."_  
_"It's too late for that now" Efa told her getting up and turning around, searching for her clothes and pulling them on as fast as she could._  
_"What are you talking about, can't we talk about this?" Alis begged, throwing the duvet off of her so she could stand up and run after Efa as she left the room and wondered about the free house, finally letting herself fall onto the sofa in the living room._  
_"This because you're afraid we'd have to tell people isn't it?" Alis shouted as she stepped into the room, still not wearing any clothes._  
_"For god sakes will you put some god damn clothes on, Alis!"_  
_"Why? It's nothing you haven't seen before" the other girl teased angrily. Not daring to sit down next her friend._  
_Efa huffed and looked seriously at Alis for a moment. It wasn't just because she'd have to tell people, it was because saying I love you meant that when the relationship finally did crash it would harder to get over, knowing that those three little words had been said and they could never be taken back. Efa had, had people taken from her before. Her mum died not to long ago and her dad had been more or less ignoring her ever since. She'd lost boyfriends. Alis was the first girl she had ever had relations with, although Alis seemed to know what she was doing and had admitted to being with girls before._

_"Why are you so afraid of people knowing? Am I not allowed to love you? Am I forbidden from having feelings? Or can I have them as long as I don't say it? ANSWER ME!" She was shouting again and even without looking up Efa could tell she was crying. Efa was fighting her tears as she looked up at the girl. Alis walked into the bedroom and slammed the door behind her. "I'll leave, how's that. You don't have to worry about me ever saying it again. It's clear you don't feel the same way and you can just forget about having sex with me any more!"_  
_"Alis" Efa protested, her rational side finally waking up and joining in with the conversation._  
_"Don't. Because I know, you'll charm into forgiving you and I can't handle feeling like this again... I'm sorry, I ever mentioned it. It's so silly of me too ever ask for something more than sex... I'll get out of your hair and you can find someone as emotionless as you to fuck!"_  
_Before Efa could find the words to explain, Alis was gone._

Efa let a tear escape her eyes as she lent against the wall. Jack and Ianto had go to get some food and she heard Gwen's feet on the floor coming towards her and she wiped her eyes quickly to hide her emotions. Gwen looked at the girl who was supporting herself against the wall. It had only been a few minutes since they took the break.  
"Efa, what's wrong, are you okay?" Gwen's voice dripped with concern and if only made Efa feel worse. She didn't mean to cause a fuss. She stood up, pushed herself of the wall and smiled at Gwen,  
"Yeah, I'm okay. Just, lost in thought."  
"What were you thinking about, you look upset."  
Efa couldn't hold it in anymore. She started crying again. Gwen was so startled at first by the girls sudden wailing that she wasn't sure what to say or what to do. Then she walked over closer and tried to calm the girl down, offering her anything that she thought she could want. Then Ianto and Jack returned and they looked at each other.  
"I'm gone for five minutes and look what happens"  
Jacks jokes didn't lighten the mood. They put the food down and Gwen helped over to the sitting area and they all comforted her. What could have caused something like this to happen? It took a while for Efa to stop crying, the food was cold and Ianto had to go and heat it up in the microwave in the kitchen area before they could start to eat it. He sat on the left side of the sofa, Efa in the chair next to him, Gwen next to her and Jack on the right side of the sofa.  
"Tell us whats wrong... We might be able to help" Gwen told her, kindly.  
Efa shock her head.  
"Talking about it really does help, Efa. It sounds stupid, but it really does help" Gwen had an arm around Efa's shoulder and Ianto had a hand on her shoulder, Jack had his arm around Ianto. He knew he was silly for feeling threatened by Efa but he did feel a little threaten. Not to the point where he was afraid Ianto would leave him for her but to the point where the feeling that Efa might have feelings for Ianto.

Eventually Efa told them her story. About Alis Drew and their arrangement and how their feelings ran deeper than they should have and how scared Efa was about saying the words and telling people and making it exclusive. How she didn't want to be shamed because of how she loved and then about how Alis just got so angry and upset that she just left and never spoke to Efa again. Then she spoke about her regret of never telling Alis that she felt the same way.  
_'You should tell him... If you don't tell him, you'll regret it'_ Jack remember all to clearly.  
This was what she was referring too when she told him that. Now he felt bad because when he asked her to share it and she said no, he brought back the memories to her and they were clearly painful. She loved Alis, whether she was ready to say it at the time or not, and now Alis was gone forever because she was too afraid to say it. Jack knew that he almost lost Ianto a thousand times and any of those times could have been for good and he might have lost Ianto without Ianto knowing how he felt and now Jack was even more happy that he'd told Ianto he loved him. He let out a deep sigh and gave Ianto's side a squeeze with his hand, making Ianto smile softly at him return and place his free hand over Jacks.  
"You should call her, apolagise. Maybe she feels the same way still. You can explain what you really meant" Gwen suggested, Efa shock her head.  
"No... It, she deserves better. I hurt her once, she doesn't deserve to be reminded of that" Efa let out a few deep breath, "so, should we get these tests done or what?" she jumped up and walked over to the medical bay.  
The others stared after her. Wow, that girls mood was all over the place.

The only things they had left to do was ask a few medical and life style questions questions. Which hand do you write with? _Left._ How old are you? _23._ What is your sexual orientation? _Bisexual._ Do you smoke? _No._ Do you do drugs? _No._ Have you been sexually active with the past 6 months? _No._ When was your last sexual encounter? _Do I really have to answer this question? Okay fine, 7 months ago, a one night stand, some dude I met in a bar._ Is there any chance that you might be pregnant? _Isn't there always a chance? _Do you live alone? _Yes. _When was your last check up with the doctor? _A few years ago. I haven't gone to the doctors since my mum died. _What's your ethnicity? _Welsh.  
_Due to her answer on the pregnancy question they forced her to have a scan. It came up clear. And they had nothing to do for the rest of the day. Gwen wrote reports about what had happened at Torchwood recently, Ianto told Jack to go and do some paperwork and Ianto gave Efa a tour, which was interesting because he himself was still unsure of where everything was and eventually Jack took her on the tour and Ianto popped down to the archives and spent the rest of the day re-organizing it. Torchwood really did fall apart without him. Efa and Jack came down a little while after the tour began.  
"And this, is the archives. Were we store important documents and artifacts when they're not being used and Ianto Jones, our gorgeous archivist and tea-boy keeps everything in check" Jack paused, then for old times sake he added "and he looks good in a suit."  
"Careful, that's harassment sir," Ianto replied teasingly.  
Jack smiled and led Efa away, giving Ianto a smile and a wink as he turned. Efa smiled and nodded, leaving him to his work.

Later that day Efa came back down to say goodbye, she said she was going back to her flat for the first time in days and she was allowed to go alone as long as she returned first thing in the morning. Ianto had finally finished and he put the last file away. When he was gone, they filed everything according to date and not according to alphabet like it was when Ianto did it. Ianto was very clever with his organization and managed to file everything in both year it was dated and alphabetical order. He congratulated Efa on her gained trust and she promised that she would be in tomorrow as long as both him and Jack were wearing clothes when she arrived. He blushed with embarrassment and she hugged him goodbye,  
"Oh, Ianto. I know it's none of my business but I know something is bothering you... I don't ask that you tell me, but tell someone. Jack at least, he deserves to know what wrong with you, above all of us. It's bothering him too, I can tell. Goodnight, sleep well."  
"You too" he called after her as she walked away.

Ianto walked back up into the Hub slowly, watching his feet closely as he put on in front of the other. He looked up and saw Jack watching him from his office, waiting for him to come up. Ianto climbed the stairs, settling on the idea that he was going to tell Jack what the nightmare was about. He closed the office door behind him and snuggled up to Jack on the sofa, holding him so close he could hear Jacks heart beating under his shirt. Jack drapped his coat over them as a blanket.  
"I want to tell you about the nightmare I had last night."  
"You don't have to if you don't want to" Jack reassured him, running his fingers through Ianto's thick hair.  
"I want to" Ianto reassured him, trying to keep his voice from shaking as he told the story. "It was about the day I died... And although I was dead I could still hear you talking. I could hear you begging for me to come back and although I tried to get my eyes open they just wouldn't open. I tried to speak and again I couldn't. I'm sorry, it must have terrible for you, watching me die."  
"It wasn't your fault" Jack spoke, his breath was hot against Ianto's skin.  
"It wasn't your fault either, you didn't know it would happen anymore than I did. Anyway, still in the dream, I felt myself go... I just drifted off, and then it was all black... I could feel something searching for me in the darkness and I - there was a voice. Calling my name."  
Jack rubbed his hand up Ianto's back, shushing him.  
"It's over now. Everything's okay, I won't let anything happen to you. Come on, let's go to sleep. It's been a long day" Jack kissed him softly and then they closed their eyes to get some more sleep.

Although Jack didn't actually get any sleep at all that night, he just laid there, under Ianto's sleeping body, listening to him snoring softly and muttering soothing words into his ear when Ianto got restless. There was the sound of smashing glass, it woke Ianto up and made Jack jump, the two men looked at each other, there was a low growling noise. It sounded so close but as their eyes looked around, there was no where it could be coming from.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight - Noises In The Hub:**

"That's weird. We've been through the entire Hub, top to bottom and... Nothing" Ianto sighed, rubbing his forehead with his hand in confusion. Jack scanned the Hub for heat signals and got only two, him and Ianto by Gwen's work station. There was no sigh of any shattered glass and no sign of any animal that could have caused the growling sound they heard earlier. It was strange. They went from top to bottom, splitting up and going different ways, they only ran into each other again. No broken glass, no animal. No nothing. The Hub was empty besides the two men. Jack shrugged and Ianto put a hand on his shoulder.  
"That wasn't you growling was it?" Jack asked, turning around to face Ianto.  
"No" Ianto shock his head.  
Jack took his hand and the two wondered away, settling down on a sofa. It was weird, they both heard it so it wasn't like they were imagining things but there was no evidence of either broken glass or anything that could make a growling noise.  
"Do you think Efa will come back?" Jack asked at long last.  
"She promised" Ianto told him, "if she doesn't; I know where she lives."  
Jack chuckled. "It was nice of you to let her have the flat."  
"I'd rather stay here with you."

Jack smiled to himself, one arm around Ianto's shoulder and the other resting on Ianto's knee. Ianto had his head on Jacks shoulder, his hair tickling the older mans cheek. One hand holding onto the hand Jack had on his shoulder. Things had been rather strange lately. Ianto coming back to life, the rift had being going off almost no stop until he turned up. Jack didn't put much thought into the sudden decrease in rift activity because he had Ianto back at last. An alarm on Gwen's desk was going off, with a sigh Ianto got up to go and see what it was. He let out another loud sigh and turned around to look at Jack,  
"Weevil" he said.

They left a note for Gwen, telling her that they'd gone out and she was to let Efa in through the tourist office and that she was to stay out of the archives until Ianto and him returned.  
They picked up some weevil spray and handcuffs before they left. Driving faster than the speed limit but slow enough to avoid crashing. They parked the SUV not to far from the sighting and used a device that tracked alien life signs. They tracked it to an empty ally way and when they were a little closer to it, the humanoid turned around and made some strange, high pitched screech that made their ears ring out even after it stopped. Then the beast started charging towards Ianto, who was lucky enough to have his weevil spray at the ready. Jack handcuffed it and Ianto went to bring the SUV around. It was strange, the weevil reacted differently towards Ianto than it did to Jack. It still fought to get away but when Ianto returned with the SUV it went for Ianto rather than an escape rout. Jack threw the beast into the back and then got in the passenger seat and they sped off back to the Hub.

Efa was already there when Gwen arrived that morning and she let the girl in willingly, and then read the note aloud after entering the Hub and finding it stuck to the cog door.  
"Why are we not allowed in the archives?" Efa asked, following Gwen out lack of things to do.  
"That's Ianto special place, if you know what I mean. He's afraid one of us will muck it up if we go down there" Gwen explained. "I heard Jack gave you a tour yesterday, what do you think?"  
"It's a big place, dark and gloomy. Could use a bit of livening up" she joked.  
"That's what I keep saying" Gwen laughed slightly, walking over to her work station and working on a report. Efa wondered around aimlessly for a few minutes. Sighing with delight when the cog rolled open and Jack and Ianto came in, Jack trying to wrestle the weevil away from Ianto and the Weevil tried desperately to tare Ianto's throat out. Jack pulled the thing down to the cells.  
"What did you do to that thing? It doesn't seem to like you at all" Gwen asked.

Ianto shrugged and clapped his hands together, "Coffee?"  
"Yes please, Ianto."  
He walked off to the kitchen area.  
"What the hell was that thing?" Efa asked, running after him.  
"It's called a weevil" Ianto told her, pointing to the cups that were on display, inviting her to pick one after removing the ones Jack and Gwen told him they liked, Gwen brought a few mugs from home into the rebuilt Hub. Efa picked out a red one with white polka dots. He picked the cup up and added some coffee, added sugar until she told him to stop. 2 sugars, he noted.  
"What's a weevil?"  
"They live in the sewers."  
"You've got to be joking."

She carried her mug and Gwen's down the stairs and put it on Gwen's desk in front of her. Jack was back in his office by now and Ianto took it in to him. Jack told Ianto to sit down and they talked about Efa. Whether or not she would be an effective member of the team. If she would or would not be able to handle the amount of work they get. He explained that he had spoken to the head of the medical school that Efa attended and apologized for keeping the girl away from her work for so long and would give further notice of when she will be able to return. He'd told the women that Efa had been assisting Torchwood in a case as a medical adviser and would be allowed to return as soon as the case had ended. Ianto backed up Efa's abilities, saying that she at least had first aid training and a medic would be helpful but maybe they should let her graduate first, so she was fully educated to the best of her ability. Jack agreed, happily. A drawer on Jacks desk opened on it's own, taking both men by surprise. Jack looked in the draw, nothing a few stray papers and a pencil. He closed it and turned his attention back to Ianto, who was leaning towards him. Jack spared him a quick kiss and told him to send Gwen up on his way down. Ianto nodded, walking out of the office he called to Gwen,  
"Jack wants to see you" and then he left for the archives.  
"What have I done this time?" Gwen mumbled, stopping her report and going up to his office and shutting the door behind her.

Efa, not wanting to be left alone followed Ianto asking all sorts of questions,  
_Why did Jack ask me to come back here today if i'm done with all the tests? Is he going to drug me and wipe my memory, that's what they do in films at times like this? Are you going to give me a job? I can't imagine I'd be much use in a place like this, it seems more like police or detective work than a medical job. How did you become so good at making coffee, this stuff is amazing?  
_The answers were: _I don't know. I don't think so. I'm not sure. __**For fuck sakes Efa, stop asking so many fucking questions! **_

Efa flinched at the shouting and swearing in the last sentence. She didn't think she deserved that, nor was it in character for Ianto, up until now he had been very gentle and kind to her, now he was shouting and swearing as if she was doing something wrong. She looked down at her feet, apolaigzed and then looked back up, rubbed her eyes in disbelief and then looked back at him. It was properly just a trick of the light but she could have sworn that for a second there, his eyes had gone all black, almost shark-like. But when she looked back again his eyes were fine. Must have been a trick of the light. He wasn't facing her anymore, he was looking at the lockers in front of him. Then turned to her, as if startled by her presence, he said  
"Oh, hello there Efa, did you need something?"  
"No. No, thank you Ianto, I'll just go" then she walked away thinking things over in her head. That was odd.

She got back up into the main area and upon seeing Gwen still in with Jack she took a seat briefly and ran through the events that just took place in her head. What was wrong with Ianto, she was sure he was just stressed, that was it. Coming back to life and having to have a DNA test to confirm it's you can't be a very nice thing to be put through. She was sure it was nothing. She shouldn't have followed him and asked so many questions, that was the last thing he needed.

Jack asked Gwen the same thing he'd asked Ianto. Would Efa be able to cope with the work, would she able to do her job effectively, would she be good for the team and so on. Gwen wasn't as confident in answering as Ianto was but she didn't in anyway say that Efa couldn't do the job. She said that Efa showed compassion, she offered to walk Ianto in to the Hub and help him find Jack when she'd only met him that day a few hours before. When a gun was held to her head and she was pushed into a cell she acted calm even though she must have been freaking out inside, it would be nice to have a medic since getting fixed up at the hospital -with wounds that are obviously not made by anything human- was hard to put up with because you couldn't give an honest answer to how you got the wound, and if you did they always thought you were trying to be funny or sarcastic. With a little training maybe Efa would be an excellent team member. Jack sent Gwen away to contuie with whatever it was she was doing before she came to see him and next he called up Efa.

Efa removed herself from the work station she was seated at, promising Gwen she hadn't touched anything, she was just sitting there and then went up to Jacks office, closing the door behind her and taking a seat opposite him at his desk.  
"Are you going to drug me?" she asked.  
"What? No. No. Follow me, Efa Disgleirio" he said, getting up and opening the door for her before following her out and leading her to the weapon training area. There were several guns laid out on the table and on the opposite side of the room there were several targets. He handed her a pair of googles and earmuffs before putting a pair on himself.  
"Get started then."  
What? No demonstration, no instructions. Just 'get started then'? Efa looked at the guns by her side and picked up the simplest one she could see, a common hand gun. Like the ones the team carried around with them at all times. She stood facing the target, she aimed the gun, squinting slightly to get a better view, she put her fingers on the trigger, took a deep breath in and let the trigger go. A loud bang sounded. She hit the targe, only just, but she still hit it. She let out a disappointed sigh, she had hoped that she would have been a little bit better than that.  
"You still hit it" Jack told her, stepping a little closer. "Come here, watch" he took the gun from her and attempted a shot, hitting the target dead on. "What you need to do, is relax. You're tensing up to much. Remember to take your time, there's no rush. Try again."  
Efa took the gun from his hand, he showed her the right way to hold it.  
"Two hands. Face the target dead on. Aim it. Breath in, breath out. Drop your shoulders. Relax. And... Let go!"  
Bang. She didn't hit it slap bang in the middle but a lot closer to the center than the first time.  
"Much better" he said, patting her on the shoulder.

"It's cold in here isn't it?" Gwen asked Ianto; who was sitting on the sofa not to far away from her writing in a book.  
"I don't feel any different" he told her without even looking up.  
"I'm freezing. We should talk to Jack about getting central heating."  
Ianto didn't reply and eventually Gwen turned back to her work. Typing away silently, before turning back to Ianto.  
"It's good to have you back, Ianto"  
"It's good to be back, Gwen... I presume it was you who was left in charge of the archives while I was gone?"  
Gwen blushed lightly and nodded.  
"I thought so" he contuied. "They were in an awful mess."  
The silence fell again and Gwen let it stay this time. It was comfortable silence, Ianto writing in his book and Gwen typing up her report. She was happy that Ianto had returned. His coffee tasted better, his organization skills were better than anyone else's and it left her wondering if he had OCD and she made a point of talking to Jack about it later. But she was happy to have her friend back. It wasn't everyday someone got brought back to life and she felt bad that she didn't believe him straight away but she knew that he understood her doubt. Suddenly there was a loud knocking and banging sounded. Even Jack and Efa could hear it. No one could tell where it was coming from.

"What on earth is going on up here?" Jack asked, his voice almost at a shout as he jogged up the stairs, in the main Hub.  
"I thought it was you" Gwen told him, looking at him strangely. Then they all looked at Ianto, who was still writing in his book.  
"Ianto" Jack said, the tea-boy looked up him. Looking fairly innocent and adorable. "What's with the banging?"  
"It's not me" he said, marking the page of his dairy with his pen and putting it on the sofa as he got up to listen closer. Suddenly the noises stopped. Then, it was a scratching sound and the coldness returned. Ianto, although he could hear the scratching, was still oblivious to the coldness that surrounded him and made the others shiver, their teeth chattering. Then it wasn't cold anymore, the chillness became heat. The tempture was rising quickly and it stopped, leaving everyone (besides Ianto, who seemed to be numb to the heat as well as to the cold) feeling like even if they were wearing no clothes at all, they'd still be boiling. It was a very ominous atmosphere as they all looked at each other, trying to identify where the scratches were coming from.  
"Ianto, you and me will go up, work our way down. Gwen, I want you and Efa to start in the cells and work your way up, we're going to find whatever is making that sound and we're going to make it stop!" He tossed Efa a spare weapon, "now's the time to get some real practice, only shoot if it's absolutely nesercery!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine- Scars On Your Skin:**

Gwen and Efa moved through the hub, their weapons raised as they they walk noiselessly. Gwen thought the scratching noises were coming from the weevil and it wasn't until she she passed it that she realized it wasn't making any noise at all. It was strangely still. It fleered up at her as she passed but it seemed to be still after a few more seconds. She eyed it oddly for awhile. Seeing how it acted when she first saw it, it was now a lot calmer than ay other weevil she had ever seen. Turning away from it and focusing on the task at hand she contuied to walk through the lowest level, lowering her gun at Efa's face.  
"Find anything?" she asked.  
"No... You?"  
Gwen shook her head. "The weevil's acting a bit strange but it's not scratching... It's perfectly still, actually."

Jack and Ianto were moving to the next level. The new Hub had 4 levels. The top level, where there was a kitchen area, Jack's office, a toilet room and photocopier along with a printer. The second level had the other offices, a main Hub area (sitting area, a few bookshelves, and a CCTV monitor (there was one in more or less every room of the Hub, so no matter where you were, you could see where everyone else was)) The third level contained: The archives, a toilet and a shower, the weapon training room. The last level was just the cells. They meet Gwen and Efa half way through searching the second level. They lowered guns and put them away.  
"Anything?" Jack asked, breathing deeply and looking from Gwen to Efa as Efa spoke.  
"Nothing. What about you?" she answered with her own question.  
"Nothing"  
"That weevils acting strange. When I saw it - it... It was perfectly still and calm... As if..." Gwen said, her eyes flicking to Ianto superciliously as she finished her sentence. She trailed off and then looked down at her feet. "It was just weird."  
Jack nodded at her distantly. Thinking about what to do next. The noises had stopped and the tempture was normal again.  
"Ianto, can you work some of that coffee magic, I could really use it" Jack questioned, rubbing his hand up Ianto's back, giving him a fake pout and some puppy eyes.  
"Sure" Ianto replied walking off to make some coffee.  
"Efa, my office" the two of them jogged upstairs to his office, leaving Gwen alone to get on with whatever it was she was doing before everything went down.

Jack invited Efa to sit and then he poured her a drink without even asking if she wanted one. Then he poured on for himself, and downing it all in one. Efa held hers for a little while and then took a sip before looking at him, waiting for him to start talking.  
"I spoke to your teacher. She's sending some work over to your flat for you to catch up. I told her that you'd be able to go back soon... There's still a few things we need to do. I want to give you an IQ test and several tests that challenge your mental and physical ability. But after that, you're free to go... If you want to of course" Jack watched over his glass and then put it down to pour himself another.  
Efa nodded at him and then downed the rest of her glass before putting it on the table and getting a top up from Jack. She didn't take it back straight away, she just looked at it, the amber liquid waiting for Jack to contuie.  
"Oh and I uh, got this" Jack rummaged through his pockets taking out a crumbled piece of paper and handed it too her.  
Efa took it and unwrapped it. I had a number on it, she looked at him, raising an eyebrow quizzically.  
"It's Alis' number. I - uh, tracked her down on our computer data base, found her most recent contacts. I also have her email address, if you'd rather have th-"  
"Jack... You really shouldn't have" she begun but he put his hand up, silencing her.  
"You need to tell her. I don't want any of this 'she deserves better', 'she properly won't feel the same way' or 'what if she doesn't want to talk' bullshit. Does she deserve better? There is nothing wrong with you, Efa. Any guy - or gal would be lucky to have you. She properly won't feel the same way, I'm going to tell you the same thing you told me when we spoke about Ianto, that's not important. What if she doesn't talk? She doesn't need too, you can do all the talking yourself. Leave an answer message, write an email... But, do something. Tell her how you really feel, explain why you were afraid and tell her how sorry you are. Trust me, it'll make you feel better."

She offered him a smile and averted her eyes taking the glass and tipping it up, letting the alcohol run down her throat and she watched as Ianto handed Gwen her coffee. She was smiling at him and presumably saying thank you before returning to her work. He came out of her office and walked in the direction of the stairs when he stopped suddenly. Jack watched her watching Ianto, her brow creasing as she watched him staring at his diary on the table by the sitting area. She followed his line of sight, watching it, her eyes widening as she saw the diary levitating. She stood up and pressed herself up against the glass, causing Jack to shift in his seat, still watching her, worry spreading over his face as he contuied to watch her. Ianto still had the tray balancing on the palm of one hand, the other arm by his side. Suddenly the diary dropped and Ianto's eyes fixed on the girl watching him, his eyes were black again. She flinched, no, she jumped. Jack stood up at this point, he didn't move over to her, he just stood. Ianto's eyes were blue once again, so when Jack followed her gaze, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary and he looked back at Efa, eyeing her oddly, wondering what was wrong with her. Then, as Ianto's lips curled into an evil smile the cup of coffee on his tray exploded. Coffee splattered all over the place, some of it on the tray, most of it on Ianto. The noise of china crashing to the floor made Jack look out the window again. Ianto cursed in his anger. Throwing the tray to the floor and kicking it as hard as he could. It speed across the floor, hitting one of the bookshelves and denting it, the dent put the shelving of center and it toppled over. The commotion attracted Gwen's attention and she ran out too. Ianto started kicking and punching the air, throwing curse words out like they were the only words he knew.

Jack ran down to him and held his wrists tightly.  
"Ianto! IANTO, STOP!" Jack was in his face, shouting loudly.  
Ianto's face went from anger, to confusion, to sadness, to pain and then back to confusion all in one second and he relaxed, falling into Jack's arms crying.  
"I'm so sorry" he sobbed.  
Gwen and Efa stared at each other, Efa was still shaken up and Gwen was beyond confused and she looked around at the mess.  
'There is no way I'm cleaning this up' she thought to herself and then realized this was not the time to be thinking that way. She crossed the space and stood beside Ianto and Jack, looking at them.  
Jack rubbed his hands up and down Ianto's back to sooth him before bringing one hand up to play with his hair.  
"What have you got to be sorry about, huh? You don't have to be sorry" Jack whispered, keeping his voice low so that it would appear soothing ad gentle.  
"Lisa" was all they heard Ianto chock out.  
Lisa. Jack sighed, tightening his arms up around the younger man, holding him closer. He pressed his lips to Ianto's head and closed his eyes to stop himself tearing up. He had to be strong, no matter how much he wanted to cry. He had to show Ianto that it was okay. That it was over and there was no need to cry anymore.  
"I forgive you, you know that" Jack pulled away to look into those beautiful eyes.  
"You shouldn't 'ave. You should have fired me. You deserve better than that... Than me" Ianto sobbed, he was shaking and leaning against Jack completely, his own legs couldn't support him anymore.

"Ianto, if I'd of fired you, we never would have gotten as far as we have. I wouldn't be able to survive without you... I need you here, with me. Always. What you did, is not important... What you are doing, who you really are, the reasons you did what you did... Love. That's why I keep you here. Ianto, I love you... Come on, you need to get cleaned up. I'll clean the mess up" Jack pulled himself fully out of the embrace and looked at the mess, wondering where to start.  
"It's alright Jack, we've got it" Efa told him, graping his attention and giving him a light smile. "You got with Ianto, I know you want to... And you should."  
"Thank you" he gave a sigh of relief. She was right, he should go with Ianto and he wanted to but the mess, it wasn't right to make Ianto do it with the state he was in.  
"Gwen, go find Ianto a clean suit" Efa barked orders like it came so natural to her. She wasn't.  
Efa followed orders but she didn't give them. Although, Jack didn't look like he was in any position to give orders to anyone, so she took that step and took control so that everyone knew what to do. They all looked so confused it was clear that this was one thing they couldn't handle and she was going to help the best she could, by telling them what to do.  
"My office, chest of drawers, third down" Jack told her as she ran off, he took Ianto's hand and turned to lead him to the showers but he stopped and turned back to Efa.  
"No, Jack. I don't need your help. Me and Gwen will clean up the mess, clean up Ianto. He does need you" she told him sternly, walking off to find a towel.

"Thank you" Jack repeated, leading Ianto away. After leaving the second level of the Hub behind them, Ianto seemed to change. He stared walking straight, he wasn't crying or even sniffing. He relaxed his hand in Jacks rather than squeezing it so tight it almost cut off the blood supply. He still wasn't talking, he followed Jack without complaint but Jack felt the atmosphere change, he couldn't explain it. It just felt different all of a sudden and turned his head to look back at Ianto before he opened the door. He gave the man a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and Ianto gave him an emotionless nod in return causing Jack to frown as he opened the door. That wasn't like Ianto. Not his Ianto.

He closed the door behind them and went to put the shower on, when he stopped. The astrosphere had changed yet again. There tempture rising once more, so he was almost sweating. The next thing he knew, Ianto had him pressed up against the wall and was kissing him firmly. Jack allowed himself to be kissed, he didn't want to push Ianto away, with everything that was going on, Jack didn't want Ianto to feel rejected. Ianto pinned Jacks hands above his head. When a hand found it's way down Jacks trousers he felt the need to cool Ianto off.  
"Ianto" he said against the other mans lips, trying to get him to stop. He didn't, Ianto kept going. "Ianto... Ianto, stop... Ianto" it wasn't working. Jack was amazed Ianto hadn't come up for air yet. Suddenly Ianto pulled back, throwing himself against the wall at the other end and just as Jack went to speak there was a knock and a few seconds later, Gwen opened the door, holding a suit. Ianto walked over and took it from her.  
"Is there anything else, Gwen?" he asked, startling her.  
"No, no. Nothing... Unless you wanted something, Ianto" she was surprised.  
No more that five minutes ago he was sobbing into Jacks shoulder and now here he was, taking charge of the situation with Jack breathless, leaning against a tiled wall for support.

"No, I don't need anything... Jack?" Ianto turned, looking at the man with a sparkle in his eyes that Jack didn't like the look of.  
Jack shook his head, not trusting himself to speak yet, he was still getting his breath back. "Are you sure?" Ianto asked, looking back at Gwen. It was Gwen's turn to see that evil sparkle and it made her flinch. "You seem a little out of breath... I guess, that's everything Gwen." Before Gwen had time to leave. Ianto had shut the door in her face and before Jack could even say anything Ianto was there. Kissing him again. And although Jack was keen on getting Ianto underdressed, this wasn't really the right time. Not with Ianto's previous mood and if he's having mood swings, there's no way of knowing what will happen next. This time Jack succeeded in pushing Ianto away, holding him at arms length. "Ianto, hold up. I've missed the shower sex too but your covered in coffee and we need to get you cleaned up!"

Gwen walked back up into the main Hub area and helped Efa who was still picking little bits of china up off the floor. She let the silence surround them until it got almost suffocating and she didn't want to speak and increase the awkwardness so she coughed. She coughed several times and found that it did nothing to improve the situation at all.  
"That was odd, wasn't it" she said. Out of lack of things to say and not actually meaning to say anything.  
"I wouldn't know... Didn't see what happened" Efa threw away the last few bits of china and worked on getting the bookcase out of the way before she picked up all the books. Gwen wasn't convinced but didn't bring it up again, the silence returning and this time feeling comfortable. She threw away the china she'd picked up and jogged over to help Efa with the bookcase. It wouldn't stand up the way it was supposed to, the dent was really big and completely set it off balance, they laid it on it's side and piled the books up the other way round instead until the figured out what else to do.  
"You're handling this well" Gwen pointed out.  
"Sorry?"  
"Most people, you know, they'd freak out. Break down, leave but you, you're handling it well. Like a real member of Torchwood" Gwen smiled at her as they put the last three books back.  
"Thanks, I suppose... How's your daughter, Anwen?"  
"She's better thanks, yeah. Like I said, just the common cold" Gwen smiled again, happy that Efa had remembered how ill her daughter was when she stayed over.  
Efa nodded in response and Gwen excused herself, retreating back into her office. Leaving Efa to entertain herself elsewhere. Efa excused herself a few minutes later, telling Gwen she was going out and would be back soon. Gwen let her go without a single thought or question. Losing herself in a game of cards on the computer, she'd finished her reports and paper work, having printed them out, signed them and put them in Jacks office, she now had nothing to do.

"Ianto, what is this?" Jack asked.  
They were, at last in the shower. The tempture back to normal under the cool sprays of water. Jack stood behind Ianto and the other man had just turned around so that Jack would clean his back for him when Jack noticed something. Something he didn't really like the look of and it scared him. It provoked fear, worry, sadness, confusion and pain inside his heart all at the same time and so, he didn't know which one to act on first.  
"What is what?" Ianto asked, innocently.  
There was no way he didn't know. Come on, there was a picture covering his whole back, almost and it wasn't like a tattoo or drawn on in a biro. It had been scratched on and deep. There was still a few bits of dried blood leaking from the cuts and they didn't look old at all. Not even a few days, if a few hours. Jack could have sworn they weren't there a few nights ago, when they had their last sexual encounter. He traced the scared with one of his cold, wet fingers. Not applying to much pressure, his finger ghosting over the picture, not even touching it really. Not quite hovering but not exactly pushing into it. Ianto hissed. Not through pain but through pleasure and it made Jack pull away. Ianto didn't hiss. Through pain or pleasure. Sure Ianto made a lot of noise during sex but hissing was not one of them and as far hissing in pain went, whenever Ianto was in pain he acted the same as he did when he wasn't in pain at all. You'd never be able to tell the difference unless you walked in on him crying.

"Ianto, there are scars all over your back, don't tell me you didn't do it because I know it wasn't me so unless Efa od Gwen have gotten you naked recently..." he trailed off. Not wanting to think about anyone, espicailly a team member causing pain to Ianto and he defently didn't want to think Ianto would cause this pain to himself. He closed his eyes, putting his hands by his sides. "Ianto, tell me what happened."  
Ianto honestly didn't know what happened. He had no idea what Jack was talking about. What was on his back? How did it get there? Jacks guess was just as good as his because he didn't have a clue.  
"Jack, I honestly don't know what you're talking about" Ianto answered, he was shaking now. Jack took another look at the scares. It was painful to look at them, let alone to touch them. But touch them he did, so Ianto could feel (because Ianto couldn't see them) what he was talking about. This time Ianto moaned in the pain because Jack was applying pressure this time. To provoke an explanation.  
"Jack I honestly don't know what you're talking about... Ow, Jack, you're hurting me!" Ianto turned around quickly. Almost slipping on the wet floor. Jack caught him and helped back to his feet.  
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you" and from the look in Ianto's eyes, Jack believed him. He could see that Ianto was being totally truthful with him right now and pulled Ianto into his arms, a hand on his hip and the other on the back of his head, stopping his arms from touching Ianto's back because now, even just thinking about it made him sick to the stomach with hurt.

After awhile, Ianto turned back around to let Jack finish and Jack was so careful Ianto wasn't sure he was cleaning him at all. Jack memorized every single line in those scares, it was some kind of symbol. But for what? A word, a place, a thing. Was it human or alien... Or worse, if that's possible. He spared Ianto a gentle kiss as their shower came to a close and he deiced that for now at least, he didn't need to think of the scares. They didn't need his attention, Ianto did because Ianto pulled himself out of the shower so weakly that Jack just wanted to pick him and carry him to his office and lay him on the sofa, tucked up his coat. He couldn't. Ianto deserved to at least be left with dignity, if nothing else. But he swore he was going to find out what that symbol was and how it got there, because it wasn't Ianto and it wasn't him. He was also sure, that he wouldn't like the answer to either of those questions.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten- Nightmares From The Past :**

Efa sat in the bench at the table tapping her tea cup impatiently. She'd called Alis and Alis, although resident at first, agreed to meet her for a coffee in a few minutes and talk to her. Efa didn't say why she called, she just rang and said told Alis who it was and that she missed her and wanted to know if she wanted to meet up as soon as possible and catch up. Alis tried to make a tun of excuses but Efa called her up on all of them and Alis eventually gave in. They were meeting at the second closet Starbucks to the Torchwood base. She didn't want to be in the closet one because if they came looking for her, which was possible because they were still keeping an eye on her and she didn't want to get interrupted when trying to make things right with Alis. Regardless of whether or not Alis had moved on, Efa knew she had to say the words. It would help her move on too.

Finally there was a tap on the window attracting Efa's attention. It was Alis. She looked as beautiful as ever. Her eyes still green, her hair still curly and caramel. After getting Efa's attention she entered the shop and walked over to register putting in her order for a hot chocolate with extra foam. Then she went and sat down opposite her ex-lover and looked down at her cup, not wanting to meet Efa's golden eyes through the fear of getting lost in them.  
"I'm glad you came" Efa said presently.  
"I'm surprised you asked" Alis' voice was so quiet, Efa almost missed it. "I thought you'd forgotten about me."  
"Never could" Efa told her smiling weakly as the other women looked up.  
It had bee two years since they last saw each other. They didn't look different in anyway. Alis offered a smile in return and then looked back down at the hot chocolate in her hand. It was painful to look Efa in the eye after their cold parting 2 years ago. She's had to live with the regret of walking out on the one she loved but she couldn't do it anymore. The sex was good while it lasted but the sex without the bond just... It didn't feel right at all.

"So, what are you doing now? Are you still at college or..." Efa started another conversation, trying to lighten the mood.  
"No, no. I uh - I'm being trained to become a fitness instructor" Alis told her taking a sip of her hot chocolate and trying to pretend it didn't burn her tongue. "What about you, did you get into med school? Are you still attending?"  
"I got in yeah, I haven't been able to attend recently but I'll be going back soon, I suppose" Efa told her. She really wanted that job at Torchwood but she was sure that she had to at least graduate and have a good few years experience first. That's if they even wanted to give her a job. She knew she was young and immature but she felt like she had, so far, done okay. Although, she was part alien and Torchwood worked to fight aliens, maybe it was against the rules for her to work there... She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.  
"Efa... If you want to go back to our agreement, I have to say no. Last time it almost ruined me and I can't go through that a-"  
"Alis, I don't want to have sex with you without a bond between us... I brought you here today to apolagise. I'm sorry, it was all my fault and I want to apolagise and I want you to know that I did love you back... I was just so scared. I'd had people leave me before and it was my first time with a girl and I was terrified. I'm sorry if I made you feel like I didn't care because I did" Efa reached across the table and touched one of Alis' hands.  
Alis allowed the touch for awhile before pulling her hand away and taking another sip of her hot drink, it didn't burn her this time. Efa copied her actions with her tea, taking a long good drink out of nervousness.

"Why are you saying all this?" Alis looked away again.  
"The last few days have been very... Out-of-this-world crazy and they got me thinking. We don't live forever and I don't want to die without you knowing how I felt. Nor did I want you to die without knowing how I felt" she stopped as a hand fell on her own and she realized she'd been shaking. She looked up into the green eyes opposite her and Alis noticed her tears. She got up and sat down next to Efa on the other side, putting an arm around her and letting her lean her head on her shoulder.  
"You're not planning on dying anytime soon, are you? Because, I'm not" Alis stocked Efa's arm lightly, her fingers ghosting over the skin. She hushed the women in her arms as Efa turned and gripped onto her. She wasn't sobbing, just tearing up a little at the emotion inside her. She'd hid this for 2 years and it appeared that ignoring what she felt didn't make it go away, it built up and got worse, to the point where it was almost unbearable and too late.  
"I missed you" Efa whispered into the taller womans neck.  
"I missed you too" Alis replied, pulling out of the embrace a little to lift up Efa's head and place a soft kiss to her lips. "I can't come back to you without some kind of commitment. I'm not saying you need to say you love me or that you have marry me or anything like that. But I can't go back to just sex."  
"I don't want that either" Efa told her honestly. Resting her head on the familiar shoulder.

Jack and Ianto walked hand in hand up to the main Hub area. Ianto looked so exhausted. He shuffled his feet as he walked, his arms barley swinging as he took every step. Jack followed him from behind, Ianto looked like he would fall over at any moment and Jack wanted to catch him incase he ever fell. Jack wasn't going to let Ianto fall again. He took Ianto up into his office and removed his jacket and waist coat, undoing a few of the buttons on his shirt so that he could relax and cool down a little bit, he felt boiling to touch. Jack eased Ianto onto the sofa and drapped his coat over him to keep him warm. Jack had barely even started to give Ianto a goodnight kiss when Ianto was already snoring. Jack smiled contently and went over to the window looking out around the Hub. There was Gwen in her office on her computer, playing some kind of card game by the looks of it. But he couldn't see Efa anywhere. He walked over to his desk, noticing the paperwork and reports that Gwen had left on his desk for him. He made a note to go through them later and then checked the CCTV for any sign of Efa. Did a heat signal scan and only got 3. Him, Ianto and Gwen. Jack rose from his chair and went down to where Gwen was working and entered her office without knocking.

"Where's Efa?" he asked, crossing his arms as he looked at her.  
Gwen closed her eyes and cursed in her head. She'd completely forgotten about that. She was too absorbed in her game to ask Efa where she was going or when she'd be back. She'd been gone at least half an hour now. She opened her eyes, closed her game down and span around in her chair to face Jack.  
"I don't know" she sighed, knowing she'd done wrong. "I'm sorry, she said she was going out and I didn't think to ask where she was going, Jack, I'm sorry, I really don't know what I was thinking."  
"Gwen, she's still under our protection, we're still meant to be keeping an eye on her" Jack ran a hand through his already messy hair and thought for a second.  
"Did you want me to try and call her or go and look for her?" Gwen asked, getting up.  
"No... Just, you stay here with Ianto. He's asleep in my office, do not wake him up. Keep the CCTV of my office on one of your computer screens, if he wakes while I'm gone tell him I'll be back soon and bring him anything he needs. I'll be back as soon as I can." Then he left.  
Jack had put a tracking device on Efa the day she allowed her to go home to her own flat, just incase she didn't return, he wanted to be able to find her.

He picked up a jacket, not wanting to take his coat from Ianto's shoulders and he walked around, following the tracking device he actually implanted on Efa's skin and she didn't even notice. It was good thing she couldn't feel pain because otherwise she would have noticed and he would have had to think of some kind of excuse for what he did. He tracked her to the second closet Starbucks and stood on the opposite side of the street watching her through the window. He knew the girl she was with was Alis and he smiled to himself because she listened. They were sitting next to each other, talking and they seemed to be getting along just fine. Laughing and talking, arms around each other. Efa looked out the window and spotted him. He saw her stiffen a little and he nodded at her, as if to say 'time to get back' and she nodded back at him. Turning back to Alis and excusing herself. Giving the girl a soft, slow kiss as they got up to leave. Efa didn't look to happy as she came across the road to him, Alis shouted a goodbye at her and waved. Efa turned and did the same thing before turning back to Jack and feeling disappointed in herself for not getting permission to leave. He must have been angry with her and any chance she had at working with Torchwood was out the window. Neither of them spoke as they meet in the street, it wasn't until they were halfway there that he spoke.

"I see you called Alis" he said. "How is she?"  
"She's good. Yeah, training become a fitness instructor. That's what she always wanted to be, she managed to live out her dream. I guess my absence didn't affect her that much after all" Efa smiled at him before turning her eyes back to the path ahead.  
"You want to be a doctor, right? You're in med school following your dream. What did she have to say about... What you said?"  
"She took it well. She was very nice and sweet. She asked me on a date" Efa told him, he smile turning into a grin. "At the new Italian place, in town. We agreed that if we were going to see each other again, it had to be with some kind of emotional bond. I'm glad that we can do that. It'll make the sex so much more meaningful."

Then it was all silence as they walked back to the Hub, Jack showed her the way in using the invisible lift. He sent Efa into Gwen's office and told her to get Gwen to make some coffee and then he jogged upstairs to Ianto and knelt down the floor beside him, running a had through his hair. How he'd missed this. Watching Ianto sleep. It was like heaven to him. He watched as Ianto's smile changed. His entire face changed. He cried, then he looked like he was in pain and then he sat up screaming.

Gwen and Efa, came running towards Jack's office and as Jack tried to pull Ianto into his arms to calm him down, Ianto pushed him away. Jack tired again and again his hug was rejected.  
"Don't fucking touch me!" Ianto shouted, kicking out and catching Jack's jaw.  
Efa and Gwen came in through the door and stopped short upon seeing the state of Ianto and Jack rubbing his jaw in pain. Efa walked over to him and looked at it. It was a little red but it didn't look dislocated or broken. But, boy, there was going to be one hell of a nasty bruise there in the morning.  
"Ianto, clam down, it's okay" Gwen said, walking over to the sofa.  
"Go away. Efa, get them out. I don't want to see them" Ianto turned on the sofa, facing the back of it.  
Jack and Gwen gave each other questioning looks. Then they looked at Efa who shrugged and put a hand on Ianto's back, he flinched but upon turning and seeing who was touching him he relaxed a bit. At least it wasn't Jack or Gwen. Then he started to cry again.  
"Yan, tell me what's wrong... What did I do?" Jack pleaded. Practically begging Ianto to tell him what he had done wrong so that he could make it up to him and be forgiven. What was wrong with him, was this a side effect of coming back from the dead? Efa rubbed Ianto's back soothingly.  
"Don't talk to me... I don't want to see you, go away!" He repeated, not turning to face either of them.  
At this point Gwen put a hand on Ianto's back too and he did turn, pushing her back as hard as he could. She flew backwards, hitting her head on the wall at the other side of Jacks office.  
"You two need to leave" Efa said sternly standing up, she helped Gwen off of the floor and upon seeing the head wound she had, she turned to Jack, "come on. Leave Ianto alone, I don't know what you did but it must have been bad. Jack get her to the medical bay. I'll be down shortly to look at the wound. Leave Ianto alone!"

Jack took Gwen's arm and helped her down the stairs. Efa closed the door behind them and turned to Ianto who was shaking and sobbing so loud her heart actually broke in half. It was painful too look at him like this. She crossed the room, perching on the edge of the sofa and putting a hand on his shoulder.  
"What did they do, Ianto... What have they done to you?"  
"They killed Lisa" he covered his face. "Lisa."  
Just by the way he said her name, Efa understood. She squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them, taking a few deep breath.  
"Gwen's really hurt, Ianto. I have to go and check on her but I will come back, okay. Did you want something, anything? Water, maybe?"  
He shock his head and she patted his shoulder, pushing off of the sofa and walking out the door down to the medical bay, examining Gwen's head in silence. She was going to have to sew it up, after bracing Gwen for the pain, she started to stich the wound together.  
"All better" she said, putting everything away again.  
"Thank you" Gwen said, putting the palm of her hand to her head.  
"It will be sore for a while but, they can come out in a week or two. Guess, I'll have to stick around until then. As for Jacks jaw, besides the bruising, it'll be alright. Kicked you, did he?" she waited for him to nod before she contuied. "Who's Lisa?"

Jack and Gwen shared a glance that Efa didn't like the look of. Then they looked down at their feet, eventually Jack turned to her and told her the story. How Ianto got a job at Torchwood to hide his half converted cyber-man girlfriend in a storage room in the old Hub. (What's a cyber-man? 'Humans with the emotions removed. Robotic humans. No emotions, no pain. Created in a separate universe, separate time, separate planet. Destroyed in this one. There's no more left'.) No one besides Ianto knew about it. (No one ever went down into the store room? 'No, there was nothing in it. We had no use for it'.) She was discovered because of the power outage, the power was drained from the storage room. Ianto went down there and was gone for a long time, so they went looking for him. It almost killed Gwen and Ianto tried to protect Lisa even though it technically wasn't Lisa anymore. (He was in love, that make's people do stupid things. 'I know! Goddammit, Efa, just listen!') How they got the hub to lock down and then about Ianto running off to get back in. (Of corse he wanted to get back in you tried to get a Pteranodon to eat his girlfriend! 'It wasn't his girlfriend anymore, Efa' come on Jack, he was in love. He's always going to believe she is in there somewhere!) Then about him threatening to kill everyone and himself and that they gave him 10 minutes but Lisa had already removed her brain and placed it into a human girls body, (how did someone else get in the Hub? 'The pizza girl just so happened to turn up when the power in the Hub came back on'.) Then she explained that her and Ianto could be converted into one and become Cybermen together.

"That's horrible... You just shot her... All of you shot her. Only one of you needed to pull the trigger" Efa dapped her eyes with the sleeve of her top. Sniffing as she tried not to cry before getting up and walking back up to Jacks office where Ianto was still curled up on the sofa. Efa watched him as he threw Jacks coat off of him and then picked it back up again pulling it over him and then throwing it back down, picking it up, throwing it down, picking it up and so on.  
"Ianto, do you want the coat or not?" she asked, stepping in.  
"Not. It's Jacks, he killed Lisa. They both did."  
Efa nodded and took the coat off of Ianto and drapped if over Jacks desk chair instead. She sat on the floor, facing Ianto and holding him close as he cried.  
'After he's calmed down, I'll bring the others back in and we can talk this out. It'll be fine. Just wait and see' and although she was saying these things to herself, she herself didn't believe them.

"The way he said it... It was like he'd only just realized it was us... It was years ago, why - why would he bring it up now and like that... In such a way" Jack played with his nails anxiously. Gwen was still sitting on the examination table.  
"I don't know. If he really was having nightmares like you said, this could just be the aftermath... You watch, he'll cry himself to sleep and when he wakes up he'll be fine" Gwen assured him.


	11. Chapter 11

Am I dragging this out? I feel like I'm dragging this out a little longer than it needs to be... I'm sorry if it's lasting to long but I'm very attached to this fanfic, I don't want to let it go... Don't forget to let me know if you're still enjoy it, I love hearing from your guys xx)

_(I also did this chapter from Ianto's prospective because I felt like you guys needed to know what's been going on inside Ianto's head while all this has been going on.)_

**Chapter Elven- Trapped Inside:**

I didn't know what time it was when I woke up. I knew it was late. I looked at Efa, she was sitting on the floor by the sofa I was laying on. Holding onto my hand, her head resting on the edge of the cushion. She was asleep and I didn't want to wake her but I had to. I had control over my body and already I could feel the demon possessing me waking up. I had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. I had to wake her. I tried to contain the demon. Time is running out, I thought I was strong before all this, I had no doubt before I died that I could take on anything but so far this demon had been getting the better of me. Taking over my body, leaving me trapped in my own mind so all I could do was watch as my life fell apart in the hands of a monster. It says it's me just in a different form. I don't believe it. I refuse to believe it. It's only playing tricks on me. Trying to convince me to give in. I have something to fight for. And I will fight. I have to. I owe Jack that much at least, espicailly after everything he's done for me.  
"Efa" I shudder at how weary my own voice sounds. But when she speak, it makes my voice sound like nothing at all.  
"Ianto?" her head snaps up, in a split second she is ready to do anything for me. I can tell the demons taking note of this, noting that Efa will do anything if I ask. His already making a list of what he'll ask of her,  
_'She won't do anything for you' _I tell him spitefully. _'It's you who's done all these bad things. She won't do anything for you!'_

_'You poor boy' _he replies, his voice cold as ice and so wicked that it reminds me of death. _'I am inside you. If I ask anything of her, she'll think it's you and just as easily as I entered your body, I can enter hers!' _

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" I shouted, not meaning to shout it. Efa wasn't meant to hear it, only the demon was.

"Ianto?" my attention snaps back to her, I relax, or try to. "Leave who alone?"  
"Nothing" I say quickly, remembering my limited time. I close my eyes and crunch up, trying to contain the demon of as long as I can so I get more time. I open my eyes too look at her. She looks exhausted. She couldn't have been asleep for long and I feel bad for waking her up but like I said, lots to do and not a lot of time to do it in.  
"Jack... I need Jack. I have to tell him..." I closed my eyes again. The demon was holding my lungs in his hands. Twisting them, making breathing difficult and talking even harder still.  
"Jack went out a few minutes after you told him to leave. He hasn't come back yet and Gwen went home two hours ago. It's just us Ianto."  
Great. I put my trust in her, I had no choice. I only needed to see Jack so I could apolagise. I didn't want him to know, not yet. I'd hurt him so much already. Sure, he would have to know eventually but only when Efa could prove it and knew what to do. I had to give her the answers. I had to tell her where they were, what they were about. I swallowed, trying to keep the demon down. I focus my mind on Jack, he's worth fighting for. He's only thing I have to fight for. I'm meant to be dead. The demon is too powerful and it crawls up into my head, at least I got my voice back. Speak before it has true power.  
"My diary" I say, my voice getting lower and lower. "Efa... The answers are in... There. Hurry" here it comes.  
"AHHH" I scream and it pulls me away from the controls. Locking me up in a cell it created in my head. I rattle the bars as it locks the door in my head so I can't get out. I'm a prisoner in my own body, that's not how it works.

I'm so weak. So weak. I keep trying. I have to set myself free, I watch as it lets Efa leave. Does it love the chase? Sending Efa down to look for my diary. I could hear it laughing. It had done something, something wicked and I was sure I didn't want to know what that something was. Had it hidden the diary? Had it put somewhere that not even I knew about? It can take over my body but it can't take over my emotions and it can't stop me from feeling them or showing them. It may smile but as tears roll from my eyes, I hope everyone understands, it's not me on the outside. It's not me doing all this. I don't mean for this to happen. I would rather stay dead. Let Jack move on. This must have been torture for him. It was torture for me and I was only watching. I can't imagine how I would fell if Jack was where I am right now and I was where he was. If Jack was possessed and I didn't know and he was telling me to leave him alone because he didn't want to see me because of Lisa. I'd be heartbroken... No, more than heartbroken. I just had to hope Efa could figure it out, could help me. I knew the answers were in my diary but the evil laugh that kept escaping my lips, from the demons lungs. It told me that there were somethings that he could hide from me. That he could read my mind but I couldn't read his. 

"What have you done?" I asked, now that I'm alone; talking to myself isn't a crime.  
"Just you wait and see, tea-boy. She's in for a right surprise. If she finds the diary, which I've made sure she won't, she won't be able to read it... You're mine Tea-boy. I'm going to be running things soon and that captain of yours will be mine!"  
"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" I shouted, throwing myself off of the sofa.

"Ianto?" came the American accent I knew all to well.

No, he couldn't be here. He shouldn't be here. He went out.  
"Ianto, it's okay. It's okay, listen, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry" Jack moved further into the room, letting the door shut behind him.

I turned away again, trying to battle with the demon inside me. Trying to keep it down, I focus on Jack. Jack. His smell, his smile, his voice, the sounds he makes during sex. Anything that will make me stronger, something to give me strength to fight it off.  
"Ianto, who were you talking to?" He pulled he around to face him and as I look into those blue eyes I'm reminded of how much he loves me. That he really does love me, it's not a trick to get me into bed with him. It's true. And that is enough motivation for me. I can push the demon down while in Jack's arms. I can fight it.  
"I love you Jack" I whisper and I can feel the demon inside me trying to break free, now it's his turn to be locked up in my mind. His turn to do nothing but watch as I slowly rebuild my life from the ruins he's left behind.  
"I love you too Ianto and I'm sorry."  
"I'm sorry to. Forgive and forget?"  
"Good idea."

I escaped and make coffee, telling Efa that I know I'll be safe with Jack beside me. I told we sorted it out, I understood and although I tried so hard to explain to her that I was possessed, thinking about it weakened me and helped the demon to break through again. I had to stop, every mention of him was making him stronger.

_'Don't think about it, think about Jack. Jack.' _I told myself, repeating his name in my head to keep me going.

_'Come on Ianto. He doesn't love you, he's just saying that so he can get into your pants'_

_'And so what if he is? I don't care. I love him. I can put with the fact that he feels nothing because I love him. What makes him happy makes me happy!' _


	12. Chapter 12

(I know the last chapter was really short, so I'm uploading this chapter along with it and I'll try and round it up within the next few chapters because I feel like it's gone on for so long. Remember, I love reviews and thank you for sticking this out with me, I couldn't have been easy. I properly confused you a lot and I want to thank you for continuing to read this fic xx)

**Chapter Twelve - The Diary:**

It was dead silent when Efa came in through the lift the next morning. It was almost too quiet. She took this chance to hunt for Ianto's diary again. It might have been in Jack office but then again, Jack and Ianto might be in there too. There's no way of knowing if Ianto was himself again. She thought she should check anyway. They were there, although this time, Ianto appeared to be comforting Jack. She knocked gently after watching and being sure that neither of them were hurting the other.  
"Morning" she said, trying to smile as she walked in.  
"Morning" Ianto whispered back.

He was cradling Jacks head on his shoulder and he planted a kiss on Jacks head, rubbing his hand up and down his back.  
"Is he alright?" She asked, stepping further into the room.  
Jack straightened himself out, supported himself on his own legs, took a long sniff and got out of Ianto's arms.  
"I'm fine. Come on, Efa. There's still some tests I want to do to test your mental ability." Then he walked out.  
Leaving Ianto looking quite startled and Efa turning away from the door Jack just walked off, looked at Ianto in surprise.  
"Is he okay?" she asked again.

When Ianto turned around to face her, there were clues about him the suggested Ianto wasn't himself. His eyes weren't black but there was something off putting about the cold look in his eyes. There was no emotion there at all, his face was blank. The blackness of the demons soul showing through.  
"He's fine" he told her. "Only a nightmare... Thought I was possessed by a demon. As if that's even possible... Coffee, Efa?" He asked.

"No. Thank you Ianto, I had some before I left" she lied. Coffee would have been amazing but the look on Ianto's face told her it was a better idea not to say yes. Then she walked away, going to the medical bay where Jack was waiting for her. Ianto, possessed by a demon. She ran over it in her head. It didn't seem impossible. There were aliens living in the sewers below Cardiff and one of them was currently in one of the Torchwood prison cells, yet Ianto being possessed by a demon was impossible. The black eyes, the mood swings, the noises. It was all starting to make sense. Ianto may very well be possessed. Or even a demon himself. Part demon, part human both fighting for dominance. If that was true, the activity was only just beginning because although Ianto was strong, Efa could tell, if this was true, human Ianto was losing the fight.  
"So, this one is just an IQ test, it's very simple" Jack begun, but Efa wasn't really listening.

She needed a way to confirm her suspensions. It wasn't right to tell Jack before she was sure. Not until there was proof. Demon Ianto would be able to put doubt in Jacks mind straight away without any hardcore evidence. She needed a way to draw human Ianto out and get rid of the demon inside him. So he could explain... _His diary_ she remembered _the answers are in his diary. _She'd go and look for it after the test, read it briefly and skim for the answers, get them and take the diary straight to Jack, to prove her point.

"Efa? Hello?" she snapped back at the sound of Jacks voice.

In front of her was a pen and a sheet of paper with some questions on it.  
"Answer the questions."

Some of the questions were easy, 2 ducks and 2 dogs have a total of 14 legs? False, it's 12. Some were hard to understand: If you make the diameter 4, you can cut a pie into more than 7 pieces?  
What? Why would you cut a pie that many times, they won't be very big pieces of pie. Make 2 pies and cut larger pieces. Efa didn't like tests that relied on intelligence because they usually required academic ability and not everyone was academically smart. Some were street smart, common sense, initiative. But she battled through it. Saying when it was over she would contuie to look for Ianto's diary and get her answers. Like 'em or not she was going to get them and then she was going to set Ianto straight. She finished the questions and gave them to Jack so that he could look over them but when she went to get up, he pushed her back down.

She was sitting on a foldable chair at the autopsy table in the medical bay, not only was uncomfortable but it wasn't the best place to be doing any kind of test.  
"We're not finished" Jack said, putting her sheets down on the table and pulling a box out from under the table and dropping it on the table itself, pulling out more and more tests.

Efa gave a loud sigh, it was going to be a long day. She thought the physical tests were exhausting, the mental tests were worse. Problem solving test. A strategy test. A personality type test. A psychopath test. And lastly a narcissism test. While Jack marking her scores and sipping on his coffee, Efa was excused and went to go for a wonder. Ianto told Jack they going to have to fed the weevil soon, if they planned to keep it. Jack was going send Ianto out to get some but he went against it and said he'd go get some as soon as he was done marking Efa's test results. Ianto nodded and asked Jack if he wanted some more coffee and then asked Efa if she wanted some too. This time Efa said yes and sat down next to Jack. She was going to be nosy and ask him about this nightmare. She knew it was rude to ask about things like that but she needed to know. Just incase it wasn't a dream, it was real and Ianto had convinced him it was a dream, or Ianto had somehow got inside Jack's head and made the dream happen, playing some sort of mind game. Teasing them almost. But just as she was about to ask him about it, Ianto called for her. She gave a loud sigh and got up to follow Ianto to the kitchen area.

"Yes, Ianto" she was trying not to sound as annoyed as she was. Ianto might need her help and if so, Jacks nightmare would have to wait.  
"About last night... Don't tell Jack" he seemed to be struggling with his words. "I need you to promise me you won't tell Jack until you've... You have to hurry, Efa... I'm losing... Please, just find my diary and - hurry!"

Efa watched him as he began to shake and then he stopped, taking a step back, his eyes widened a little and the looked back up at Efa, an evil smile growing on his face.  
_'Here we go again'_ Efa thought, turning to leave as soon as possible, but Ianto grabbed her arm pulling her back.  
"You'll never find it, you know. I've made sure of it, hidden it. Find it in one hour and I won't try and take it from you" that voice made Efa's blood run cold.  
"Is this a game to you, is Ianto's body a prize?"  
"Yes and I'm winning but what kind of game would it be if the other players didn't have a fair chance?"  
"What about Jack, is he getting a fair chance?" Efa asked.  
"Jacks not playing" Ianto's voice was ice cold, his arms raising and grabbing on Efa's, he pushed her against the counter. "You are. It's a two player game only, want to hear the rules?"  
Efa laughed, even as she was smashed against the counter.  
"As if you use rules" she mocked. Freeing herself slightly before he grabbed her, he scratched her arms with his nails but she didn't notice, he tried again, this time drawing blood. Again, nothing. He hissed angerly.

"You can't torture me" Efa told him, he let her go. "Not physically because I feel no pain. Not emotionally because what have I got to lose?"  
"Oh, Efa, we all know there's always something left to lose. Don't we?"  
"Ianto, where's that coffee?" Came Jacks voice from the floor below.  
"Coming Jack" Ianto called back.  
Efa pulled him back, glaring at him, a fire burning up in her eyes.  
"If you hurt anyone of them. Jack, Gwen or even Ianto, I will never rest until I've put you in the ground! Come on, Ianto, come back. You can fight this, you can win!"

"If you tell Jack, I'll kill him" was the last thig the demon said before it let Ianto come back. Ianto looked like himself again, he looked up at Efa.  
"I'm so sorry... Please, Efa... Help me, but don't tell Jack... I've done enough to hurt him already... Find proof... Find my diary" he went weak at the knee's as he battled against the demon inside. Efa steadied him. "It's the only way."

"Ianto? Efa?" Came Jacks voice, though it was closer now.  
Ianto supported himself and turned to walk away, carrying his coffee and Jacks, leaving Efa's coffee on the side.

Efa watched Ianto walk and greet Jack as he came to the doorway, Jack gave Efa a smile and told her he had her results. She thanked him and said she'd be down in a minute

Jack pointed out that Efa was bleeding, scratch marks going down her arms that weren't there when she walked away. He eyed her oddly and then did the same to Ianto.  
"Just itchy arms" she said quickly. "must be an allergy or something, I'll sort it out quickly."

She braced herself against the counter, watching them walk away. Hearing Ianto's forced laughter, seeing his fake smile. She followed them back to the medical bay and sat down, sorting her arms out as he gave her the answers:

Her IQ was 127.

Problem solving was average.

Strategy was above average.

Psychopathy was 16%

Her personality type was INFJ, meaning she was an introvert, intuition, good with emotions and a good judge of character.

Narcissism was 8%

She thanked Jack kindly and then excused herself. She had under an hour to find the diary without Ianto taking it from her. She didn't know where to look first. She made a bottom to top sweep, looking everywhere. She had to find it and she had to find it fast. It had to be here somewhere, Ianto hadn't left the Hub since he returned so it couldn't be anywhere else. She kept looking at her watch. Now that Jack had gone out, Efa could check his office and so she did and she found it in a drawer in Jacks desk. It was empty besides the diary and she took it. Running down to Gwen's office, Ianto was in the archives. She saw it on the CCTV she pulled up on Gwen's computer. Luckily, Gwen didn't think much about logging out before going home for the day.

Efa was about to start reading the diary when the invisible lift started coming down and Gwen, who was on the lift, noticed Efa in her office.  
"Gwen, I told you to stay home today" Efa paniced when Gwen brought her presence to Efa's attention.  
"Rhys has gone to work, I thought hanging around here was better than being alone" Gwen stepped into the room. "Something you wanted Efa? Is that, that's Ianto's diary, what are you doing with it?"

Efa searched her head for a good explanation. Ianto told me to hid it so that Jack wouldn't find it... Everyone knew Ianto would just hide it himself. She considered lying and saying it wasn't Ianto's diary, it was hers. But she didn't think Gwen would believe it. Gwen's eyes widened at her silence, her arms crossed, expecting an answer. Eventually Efa sighed, accepting defeat. She looked at the book in her hands and flicked through it, looking for the last page he wrote on, calling Gwen over to have a look. Gwen moved over and took a glance at the page, her brow frowning at what she saw. There were words on the page, sure enough but what lanuage it was no one knew for sure. Defently not english and Efa and Gwen could tell it wasn't welsh either. Efa's eyes looked over the words. There were symbols and they were presumably named and described but if couldn't be read. Some of the symbols were easy recognise and others not so much.

Fuscina which was looked like a E laying on it's back and came with the description of: Egestas.  
Thaumaturgic Aluminium which was just a triangle: Magica Evocatio daemoniorum daemonis per qu vocabitur.  
Facinum which was the inverted pentagram: Numinis.

De potentia gladium looked like some kind of sword or dagger: Lux et tenebrae.  
Inversus transire de satanica iustitia: Piaculum in pectore sculpere.

Sexualem ne moriamini symbolum: indicans etiam locum, fine.  
Sanguinem ne moriamini symbolum: Hostia.  
Spira: numerum bestiae, 666.  
Et labyrinthus: Et pedicas ad capiendos spiritus maligni, ritu sancto definitur choris.  
Sigillum est sinistrae manus ges semita: Via ad infernum.  
Tuum da nobis Indicator: Moles nigricans,  
Rebellio: Anti iustitia, vel rebellio.  
Malus societas: Ordo iuvenis.  
Furtim ex Lucifero: Il principe degli angeli caduti, evocare demoni, soddisfare i loro desideri.

"What the hell is all this?" Gwen asked, as Efa flicked through the pages, revealing more and more symbols and words. "What does it say?"  
"I don't know" Efa replied.  
Her eyes looked over the page, trying to figure out what the words said. She would look at some and think she knows what they say and then look at all the other words and think she wasn't so sure anymore. She rubbed her forehead with her hand and looked up, spinning in the chair to face Gwen directly.  
"We need to put Ianto in the cells" Efa whispered.  
"Did Ianto do this?" Gwen asked, taking the book from Efa's hands and to look at it more closely.  
There was a cough from the doorway, grabbing both their attention and making them jump a little. They looked up, it was Jack and Ianto. How long they'd been standing there, neither women knew and neither wanted to know. They just looked up, Gwen hid the diary behind her back and they tried to look innocent.  
"Did I do what?" Ianto asked, looking directly at Efa even though it wasn't her who asked the question.  
"She was talking about my arms" Efa shrugged her shoulders as a gesture towards them. "With you being so violent yesterday, she thought you'd started attacking me as well."

Efa studied each face carefully. She didn't want to make it obvious that she was lying, she needed them to believe her. The two men just looked at each other for a few moments as if talking only with looks, debating whether or not to believe them. Ianto looked back, at Gwen this time.  
"Don't worry, she set me straight... She told me about her..."  
Efa rolled her eyes, Gwen was a terrible liar and it seemed like she was just going to have to finish it.  
"My allergy to tea leaves. When I was in the kitchen earlier a few tea bags must've gotten a bit too close for comfort, brought me into a fit of itches, because I can't feel the pain of my scratches I didn't realize how bad they were and..." she trailed off, finding it pointless to finish what she was saying.  
They looked from Efa to Gwen who just stared back and nodded to confirm Efa's deceit.  
Jack didn't appear to be buying it but he looked at Ianto who shrugged and then turned back to the girls and asked if they wanted coffee, both nodded and Ianto walked away. Jack watched him leave, for a second Efa and Gwen thought they were leaving but he turned around once Ianto was out of ear shot and walked over.

Gwen's hand tightened around the diary and Efa stood up from the chair, walked towards Jack and lead him away,  
"So, just how many planets are there?" she created conversation turning and walking out of Gwen's office, she quickly faces Gwen, shook her head and then gestured to Jack. Gwen seemed to get the message and nodded, waiting for them to be out of sight and then stuffing the diary into one of her drawers so that it was out of sight. She turned back and jumped, Ianto was watching her from the kitchen. She offered him a smile and he bowed his head in return, looking away and continuing to make the coffee. She checked the time, and stuffed the diary into her bag, leaving the office to ask Efa if she fancied going out for lunch. This was too weird, even for Torchwood, she needed answers. She walked over to the sitting area, where they were sitting and waited to catch Efa's attention.  
"And there still so many we don't know about. For every alien species that comes to earth there are at least a dozen we haven't met yet" Jack was saying.

Efa nodded, egging him to go on but then she noticed Gwen and looked up at her, Jack did too.  
"Sorry to interrupt, Efa, I was wondering if you'd like to catch an early lunch?" Gwen splattered out nervously.  
"Sure" Efa replied, smiling she turned back to Jack, "excuse me."  
She got up and followed Gwen out, leaving Jack and Ianto alone in the Hub.  
"Coffee" Ianto said, coming down the stairs with a tray. "Where's they go?"  
"To lunch" Jack said grinning broadly as Ianto bent down to put the tray on the table before sitting next to Jack on the sofa.  
"You know that weevil, down stairs" Jack began, pulling Ianto into his arms.  
"We could call it Janet... After the old one" Ianto suggested.  
"You're going to let me keep it?"  
"If you want too... Could be just like it used to be... In the old Hub, we had Janet and we had Myfanwy... Might be awhile until another pterodactyl comes through the rift though" Ianto confessed, smiling a little. Then he looked up at Jack and kissed him, "I miss her too."

"What are we going to do?" Gwen asked, horrified by the news. Efa didn't look at her, she herself didn't know what to do. "We have to tell Jack."  
"I promised Ianto, I wouldn't!"  
"Efa, if what you're saying is true then it's not Ianto anymore... That thing could just be messing with you, messing with us all. I don't think we have a choice."  
Efa let out a sigh, Gwen was right. She nodded and stood up.  
"We best hurry up then, there's no telling what will happen why we're away!"

They got back to the Hub and at first they thought it was empty. No sign of Ianto or Jack. Not in the office, not in the medical bay... Not anywhere the girls cared to look for them. Their mugs of cold coffee on the coffee table in the sitting area. Efa took another look at Ianto's diary.  
"I've got it" she shouted. "It's Latin. Of corse, it's Latin!"  
Gwen looked at her, "you speak Latin."  
"Privet schooling, French, Spanish and Latin. Welsh and english of corse. I think, I might be able to read it."

Then Jack came up the stairs. Staring at them. He knew it. He knew it, they'd been reading his diary. He suspected it earlier but when Ianto didn't seem bothered and then Efa started talking about aliens, he got distracted and lead away. He moved closer to them, there was no use hiding it now, as Gwen said, they had to tell Jack. They sat him down and began to explain. At first Jack didn't believe them but then they showed him the diary and his mouth fell open. On one of the pages was the symbol he saw scratched into Ianto's back.  
"What is it? What does it mean?" Jack pointed to it, so Efa knew which one he was talking about.  
She looked at it carefully, looking over the words. She hadn't real Latin for years, it was a dead lanuage she never thought she'd actually need it. Now she was thankful for spending three years learning it.  
"Furtim ex Lucifero: Il principe degli angeli caduti, evocare demoni, soddisfare i loro desideri" she read aloud, the other looked at her, showing their lack of understand and Jacks impatience. When she translated it into english it was a slow translation, like she mentioned, it had been years since learning it so some of the words could take a while. "Sigil of Lucifer" she began, squinting to get a better look at other words. "It's used to summon demons and mark his presence..."

"Ianto" Jack's voice was barley a whisper.

He wasn't sure what to do now, they couldn't kill it. Demons can't be killed and if it was inside Ianto, it would kill him to and Jack just got him back. He ran his hands through his hair, pulling roughly occasionally as he tried to get some sort of organization over his thoughts.  
"Okay" he said presently. "We need to figure out a way to stop it. There's only one way to contain a demon. Any of you guys now how to work a devil trap?"  
"I can google it" Efa suggested, pulling her phone from her pocket it was quicker that using a computer.  
"Do that, Gwen, I need you to go to the nearest church and get all the holy water you can, on your way back, run to the shop and get salt... Lots and lots of salt. I'll get Ianto into the cells. Efa, meet me down there!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen- Tortured Souls:**

Gwen walked into the church, stopping to have a look around, just to be sure that no one was watching her. There was a women a few seats away from the front, praying silently. The vicar was out of sight, Gwen quietly unscrewed the lid on the bottle in her hand and lowered it into the bowl of holy water that was by the door. She was trying to hurry up but she didn't want to rush and then make a mistake and draw attention to herself. After collecting the water and filling the bottle to the top she put the lid back on and turned to leave. Hurrying to the nearest shop to get some salt. Why did Jack need salt? She shook her head, thinking she properly didn't want to know. She walked until she found Tesco's and then she contuied to look around isle after isle until she found it. How many did she need to buy? He said lots, but it looks weird buying all this salt and nothing else. She picked up three pots and put them into the basket and took them to the self-check out. Scanning the items and trying to act like she didn't notice the weird looks she was getting. 3 tubs of salt and nothing else. She used her debit card and took her plastic bag from the side, picked up her card, slipped it back in her purse and walked away. Going back to the hub, moving fast but trying not to attract attention.

"The interrogation rooms. We can work with that weevil down there, it will only distract him" Jack told her, carrying an unconscious Ianto.  
Efa nodded and followed him, she was holding a permanent marker in red, her phone and Ianto's diary. He placed the sleeping Ianto on the chair in the room at the end of the hall. He pulled the table out of the room, placing it in one of the other rooms. He came back and strapped Ianto's body to the chair while Efa worked around him trying to work on the devil trap.  
"Okay, Jack seriously, I can't get this down with you walking around inside it all the time. Take a step back" she told him.  
He finished making sure Ianto was tightly strapped in and then took a few steps back.  
"Go wait for Gwen" Efa told him. He nodded and hurried up the stairs, his hands shaking as he ran one through his hair and waited for Gwen to return by the cog door. Leading her down when she did, taking the bag and entering the room. Amazed to see that Efa had already finished. Jack left Efa and Gwen in the interrogation room with Ianto while he went upstairs to get something. Gwen and Efa unpacked the stuff, placing it on the floor in front of the devil trap, just outside of it. They sat on the floor, waiting for Jacks return or for Ianto to wake up. Jack returned first.

He was carrying a black, leather bag. It was the size of a rucksack but was carried like a hand bag, he placed this on the chair opposite the one Ianto was in and pulled it back, shoving it into the back corner along with the salt and bottle of holy water. Silently wishing Gwen had brought more, but this wasn't the time to be picky. Him, Gwen and Efa started having a conversation about what they were going to do. Is there a way to get rid of it? Kill it? Will Ianto still be alive, is Ianto alive? Is Ianto a demon or is his body being over taken by a demon? Is Ianto even in there at all?  
"I think we should wait for him to wake up" Efa suggested, running a hand over her face as she thought about it. "Question it. We need to know if Ianto is actually in there."  
"I think we should get rid of it" Gwen protested. "So far what's been doing is only the beginning. If it gets full power, full control, things will only get worse. I say we get rid of it, now."  
"Alright" Efa said, surprising the other two. Jack looked like he was going to protest but waited to see how all this would play out. "You do it then!" Efa handed Gwen the gun that was in her pocket.

"What?" Gwen asked as the gun was shoved into her hand.  
She looked from Jack to Efa and Efa just stared at her, keeping her face very serious. Jack looked like he was going to say something but then stopped, he noticed the safety was still on the gun, even if Gwen didn't notice, Jack did.  
"You think we should get rid of it, you do it, because it sure as hell won't be me" Efa explained, crossing her arms, waiting to see how Gwen would respond. Even if the safety was off and Gwen did shoot, Ianto would have been fine. The demon part of him would have kept him alive. Gwen was just looking back at her, staring into her amber eyes, trying to figure out if she actually meant what she was saying. Eventually Efa took the gun from her hand and layed it with the salt, bag and holy water.  
"See" she said, her back still turned. "You can't, can you?"  
Gwen looked away and they all fell silent as they tried to think of a way to sort this out, they ran out of time because Ianto woke up. Pulling at his restraints trying to get free, his eyes black. He looked at the three people in front of him and glared, an evil smile crossing his face.

"Figured it out, did you?" he asked.  
"You're not very good at keeping secrets" Efa retorted, cocking her brow sarcastically.  
There was that evil chuckle again. His hands holding on to the arms of the chair, his nails scratching at the surface.  
"Devil trap? How original."  
"We want to speak to Ianto" Efa shouted, walking closer.  
"I am Ianto."  
Jack walked over to the chair in the corner and he unzipped the black bag pulling out a transparent plastic cup.  
"What are you doing?" Came Ianto's voice as he watched Jack fill the cup half with salt and then half with holy water and then stir it with a metal spoon.  
"I thought you might be thirsty" Jack's voice is colder than ice as he takes the cup in his hand and advances towards Ianto, forcing his mouth open and pouring some of the liquid down his throat. He took a step back, watching and trying to hide how hard it was to watch as Ianto started foaming at the mouth and screaming in agony. Efa winced and Gwen looked away completely. Waiting until it was over to turn back. Jack put the cup down and took hold of Ianto's shoulder.  
"I want to talk to Ianto! I know he's in there!" Jack was close to tears now and the demon was enjoying the view, while Ianto who was trapped inside was banging at every wall and rattling every bar screaming and crying, trying to gain control again and tell Jack to just get it over with. To kill him. He couldn't take his anymore. "Yan, come on, you can fight this... You are strong I know you are please. I won't lose you again, I love you."

"I'm inside his head Jack... I know what's he's thinking, I know how he feels. He's watching but his human side is far to weak to take control again... I'm getting stronger and there's nothing you can do about it, you pathetic slut."  
Jacks face dropped. Gwen's head snapped back in Ianto's direction and Efa's eye went wider than ever. That was not expected. Did he just call Jack a slut? A pathetic slut at that. Efa's eyes flicked to Jack, surprised to see he was crying and then she looked at Gwen, whose jaw was almost touching the floor. She took a step back, standing at Gwen's side and closed her mouth for her, giving a mean glare to act professional. Jack smiled through his anger and pain, it was a way to obviously forced smile.  
"What?" The demon laughed. "What did you think he thought about you? He's defently not in love with you that's for sure. He used you, Jack Harkness, you've been played. Doesn't feel good does it?"  
Jack shook his head, closing his eyes briefly too keep his tears in. He turned away from Ianto, taking a few deep breaths, his eyes now open but he wouldn't look at Gwen or Efa.  
"The great Captain Jack Harkness, 51st century slut, head of Torchwood 3. So loyal to his team that one of them shot him in the head before turning the gun on herself. He took advantage of a tea-boy's confused feelings, hired a police women. Carried on shagging Ianto Jones even though he was and still is waiting for the famous Gwen to throw him a sign. He left his team for the Doctor who abandoned him because he didn't care. Jack Harkness who choose Ianto upon his returns as slopy seconds because Gwen was engaged. Jack Harkness who took him to meet 456 knowing how much danger it would put me in" he was saying me instead of Ianto now and that scared them, he wasn't Ianto, he couldn't be Ianto. "You are the reason he died and you know it... But also, we almost killed the whole team, almost all of the world, because of a girlfriend who was already dead. My question is, do you hate Ianto as much as Ianto hates you?"

He was switching from first person to third person and it was hard to listen to him describing him and Ianto as being the same person. His black eyes turned on Gwen.  
"Gwen Williams, use to be Gwen Cooper. Ex police officer, joined Torchwood after watching her current boss get shot and then resurrected, while the women -whose position she filled- killed herself. She shamelessly flirted with her new boss even though she already had a boyfriend. When the great Jack Harkness returned from his great travels with the Doctor, she contuied to flirt, despite her engagement which she only agreed to because the one she really wanted was gone and she doubted he'd ever return. She didn't want to seem desperate so she kept to her engagement, saying that it was turn to throw a sign. Now married with a child and she still spends most of her nights here, in the Torchwood base because she doesn't want to leave Jack Harkness home alone. There's nothing you wouldn't do for your boss... Some even think you might leave your husband if he asked... Would you?"

Gwen ended up leaving the room, she wasn't going to give Ianto -no, the demon- the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She wasn't going to let him know that she was effected by what he was saying. Did she have feelings for Jack? Once, he was good looking, charming, funny but she didn't love him. She loved Rhys and she could never leave him, even for Jack.  
The demons eyes now turned to Efa.  
"Miss Efa Disgleirio. 22 years of age, turned away the first person to ever say 'I love you' and the only person who ever could love her. Turned down by her father, mourning her mother. Wants to be a doctor but is hoping the Captain will offer her a job here in Torchwood, wants to be promoted beyond what she is capable of. Even that Alis girl is cautious of her. With good reason, didn't know she was half alien, how stupid can you get? Beautiful you might be but what good is beauty without a brain? All in Torchwood might as well give up on trying to succeed, you think you're hero's, you think you save the day but all you do is mess things up... You can't even keep each other safe. Can't tell the difference between a shape sifter and your team members... End up in a different time period and, even though you've been there for less than 12 hours, you're already hooking up with some guy whose name you stole... That's right Jack, Tosh told us" he lowered his voice to a whisper, "you're a slut and Ianto knows it... We can have anyone we want and as soon as you fail to save him, to kill me, we will walk over your dead bodies and reck havoc on the world!"

Efa stormed forward, a storm brewing behind her eyes she back handed Ianto on the side of the face.  
"Shut up!" She shouted.  
"Someones a little fisty" he said turning to look at Jack. "I like this one, can we keep her?"  
Efa went through the bag Jack had put on the chair and pulled out a sharp edged blade, dipping it in the plastic cup of water and then shook salt on it before dragging it lightly across Ianto's cheek. At the sound of Ianto screaming Jack walked away too. This was too much. He couldn't listen to this.  
"I want to talk to Ianto!" Efa shouted.  
"I am Ianto... New and improved. Straight from hell."  
That didn't make any sense. How could Ianto have haunted her flat for years but still be in hell? To become a demon, don't you have to go to hell and torture people for years before you become a demon. Ianto had been in her flat, giving her hell. Waking up her up in the middle of the night shouting. Moving things around from the table to the next room. Jack ended up coming back in a few minutes later, having composed himself and Gwen followed him in.  
"Ianto haunted my flat for years, he wasn't in hell... How did you get in there?" Efa crossed her arms, standing back to stand with Jack and Gwen.

The demon laughed again, coldly. A chilling smile on his face.  
"His soul was split in two" he explained. "When he died, part wanted to stay and part wanted to leave. That split his soul in two. Part of him stayed, in your flat. Where he lived. The other half went to where he was meant to be. Hell."  
"Ianto was a good person" Jack interrupted. "He shouldn't have gone to hell."  
"Everyone in Torchwood ends up in Hell, Jack. You kill people, aliens, confused beings who you could have helped. You're a bunch of sinners. I am the part of Ianto who went to hell and tortured souls for years... And guess what Jack, I liked it. Your tea-boy liked hurting people. If you want to keep Ianto, you have to put up with me." 


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen- The Cure:**

"This doesn't make sense... Ianto's a good person, he - he wouldn't do something like that. How did he end up going to hell?" Jack was pulling on his hair so tight Efa was afraid he'd start pulling it out. Her and Gwen just looked at him, not knowing what to say. There was nothing to say. "Just tell me that there's a way to save him?"  
The two women exchanged looks. Efa turned her back on them, her eyes looking off into the distance, she knew of a way. She'd dated a preachers son once and he'd explained many ways to get rid of demons but only one that left the human soul pure and intact. It was dangerous, the person who attempts it, if they do it right, dies. It doesn't get rid of the demon per say, it just purifies it, turning it into a human soul. It should make Ianto pure human again although it will take away every memory he has. She didn't want to risk the lives of Jack or Gwen and she didn't want to die either. But now wasn't a time to be selfish, she wasn't raised that way, if someone was in danger she would do everything in her power to put it right.  
"I might know a way" she said slowly. "Put it's dangerous, very dangerous."  
"What do we have to do?" Jack asked, finally there was hope for Ianto.  
"It's a one person job only. After it's done, Ianto will need you and this method has the habit of killing the one who does it and Gwen has a family so the only logical answer is that I do it" Efa explained, making sure they understood the risk before they agreed.  
"No, you can't. If it's going to kill someone it should be me" Jack told her. "it's less likely to kill me, just tell me what I have to do."

Efa turned to look at him.  
"You need to be aware of the risks. If done right, you die and Ianto is human again, done wrong and it could reverse the process. Ianto could lose control of his body and even if he does survive, his memories will be lost. He won't remember me, Gwen, you or himself even. He won't remember anything." 

The silence that followed was agonizing. Jack seemed to weighing his options. Of corse Ianto not remembering who he was would be better than Ianto dying or becoming a demon. He nodded presently.  
"Is there any chance he might get those memories back?"  
"Of corse, through dreams, nightmares, touch, smell... Not so much sight but it's possible" Efa told him.  
"What do I have to do?"  
"There are a lot of steps. First you need to go to confession" Efa crossed her arms.  
"What?" Jack didn't go to confession. He didn't go to church and get into a box to tell a stranger his secrets. His past wasn't anyone's business but if it was the only way to save Ianto, what choice did he have? He wasn't sure what he was going to say. He'd done so many bad things in his life that it would take too long and time seemed to be running out with the demon Ianto getting stronger. He agreed and Efa drove him to the nearest church. They left Gwen behind giving her strict orders to stay out of the interrogation room if possible, not leave the Hub until told otherwise and if she has to go down to the interrogation room she must never step inside the devil trap. She nodded and limits herself to the top two levels of the Hub, making coffee for herself and trying to focus on her reports. She couldn't seem to focus on them with Ianto on the floor bellow her fighting a battle that no one could aid him it.

"Want me to go in with you?" Efa asked as she pulled up outside.  
"No" he replied, his voice sharp and to the point.

She made no effort to reply. She just relaxed her hands on the steering wheel and watched as he left the car and entered the church. She couldn't help but feel bad for him. After all, if Ianto was dead for as long as they say he was, then Jack was just getting over the loss and now he might have to go through it all again. She had Ianto's diary, it was in her handbag and she took it out, bringing the pen out of it too and she digged deep into her memory to remember the words that were needed in the ritual. She closed her eyes and strained but she couldn't remember, the words were to far gone. She pulled out her phone and flicked through the contacts, praying she still had David's number. (David was the name of the preachers son.) She found it. David Lawson. She pressed call, she hadn't spoken to him in years, she was lucky if he still had the same number.  
"Hello?" came the voice on the other end of the phone.  
"Hi, is this David? David Lawson?" She asked.  
"Yes, who is this?"  
"Hi, David. It's Efa Disgleirio from Secondary"  
"Efa? It's been a while"  
"Yes, I know. Well, I'm in a slight situation and I need some help, I was wondering if you could help me."  
"Of corse, what's the matter."  
"Right well, do you remember the words for that demon curing ritual you told me about?"

His side of the phone went quiet. She was biting her lip unaware that it was bleeding until she felt the red liquid drip down her skin as it oozed out of the cut. It seemed like forever until he answered again.  
"Um, why? You're not actually going to try it out, are you? It's dangerous, Efa, it'll kill you!" He was almost shouting, she was flattered by his concern but she didn't have time for a lecture.  
"Look David, I really don't have the time, I'm not doing it, I just need to know the words"

"Why do you need to know the words if you're not doing it?"  
"It's complicated, David please... I need to know the words!"  
"They're in Latin"  
"We studied Latin together, David, I can handle it!"  
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus. Hanc animam redintegra, lustra! Lustra! There, happy?"  
"Slower, I have to write them down."  
"Exorcizamus... Te, omnis... Immundus spiritus... Hanc Animam... Redintegra... Lustra... Lustra... Got it?"  
"Got it, thanks you're the best"  
"Efa, promise me you won't-"  
She hung up before he finished what he was saying but she didn't want to listen to him telling her it was a bad idea and blah, blah, blah. Efa read the words over in my head: _'__We exorcise you, every impure spirit. This life fix, haunts! Haunts!__' _Is what it reads in english. Jack was taking a while, she noticed, maybe he had a lot to confess. She shuddered to think of how much bad he must have done if it was taking this long. Finally he emerged and got into the car.

"Took your time" she said jokingly as he strapped himself in.  
"A lot to talk about... Why do I need to confess?"  
"It purifies the blood"  
"Why do I have to have purified blood?"  
"How you can cure the must impure spirit known to man if you yourself are impure?"  
She handed him the diary, open to a new page with her writing on it.  
"What's this?" he asks looking at it.  
"It's the words you'll need to say when you're performing the last step" she explained.  
Jack looked at it carefully. Trying to pronounce the words.  
"Exroci-samus" He began.  
"Exorcizamus" she corrected him.  
"Exorcizamus... Te Omnis... Immdus?"  
"Immundus" he squinted trying to get a better look, did he really have to say them in Latin, was english not an option? "Spiritus... Hank"  
"Hanc"  
"Hanc... Animam... Redintegar"  
"Redintegra! It gra not gar. Gra, gra" she told him, rolling her eyes as she stopped at a red light.  
"We don't have time to stop at red lights" he said impatiently.  
"Just read. I need to make sure you can say those words."  
"Redintegra... Lustra, lustra."  
"Perfect" she said "and all together."  
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus te, omnis immundus spiritus. Hanc animam redintegra, lustra! Lustra!"  
"Perfect" she repeated, speeding up again, the red light going off and the orange one coming on.

They stayed in silence until they were in the Hub, Gwen greeting them as they entered. Efa sent them down to the interrogation rooms and promised to meet them down there, don't do anything without her and she rushed to the medical bay. If they were actually doing this then they were going to need some things. A syringe (they will need to extract blood from Jack's veins), water (Jack was bound to get thirsty), they were going to need more restraints (If the treatments are stopped, even for a short while, the demon being cured gets closer to human, devil's traps and bindings will be weaker and the demon might be able to free himself and get away). Making sure she wasn't going to need anything else she went down to join them. Ianto was taunting them again. More cruelly, saying it wasn't going to work and Jack would die for nothing.  
"Shut up!" Efa shouted as she walked in through the door, pushing a table in with her and pushing it to the off corner of the room, moving the items from the chair to the table, the chair was too small to hold more stuff. She laid everything out on the table. "Jack" she called, "can you come over here please?" He obeyed and walked over. She looked at him, her face very serious, her eyes unusually dark. "The idea is too keep the treatment running without stopping. If you stop, even for a minute, the devil trap could stop working" she kept her voice low because she didn't want to be over heard by the demon.  
"I can hear you" he mused. His voice had a sing song tone that was very unsettling.  
"Good" Efa said, not letting him see her panic for even a second. "Because he'll be more human, the devil trap won't be able to contain him and he will be able to break free of his restraints and escape. You have to keep on going. Gwen" she turned to the dark haired woman still by the door, just outside of the devil trap. Gwen walked over and huddled around. "It's up to you to make sure that Jack gets the water when he needs it. His hands will be otherwise occupied and he won't be able to hold it. You have to put it to his lips and tip it up so he can drink when he gets thirsty and he will."

"Okay" Gwen nodded in agreement and took the bottle of water from the table.  
"I did look for a straw but you appear to be out of them" she said, clasping her hands together. "Jack, every hour you will need to extract some blood. Fill the syringe to the top with the stuff, it has to be from your veins, your pure blood and inject it into his neck. Can you do that? For eight hours, on the hour?"  
"Yeah, I can do that" he nodded and picked up the syringe.  
"Okay" there was a sadness in her eyes. She honestly thought he was going to die from this. She thought this was goodbye. She'd known him less than a week but she felt like she'd known him all her life. As if he'd always been there.  
"Efa" he put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I'm going to be fine, Ianto will be fine. It'll work."  
"This is going to kill you" she said, her voice shaking ever so slightly.  
"No it won't. I can't die" he told her.  
"It's true" Gwen confirmed.  
Efa smiled weakly, she was still in disbelief but there wasn't time left to waste.  
"Now, after this Ianto will be weak for awhile. He'll need a lot of medical care-"  
"Then I guess it's a good idea you're not going anywhere" Jack butted in.  
"He'll be weak and we'll have to remind him who he is, who he really is. He's going to need us, all of us."  
"We'll be here, we're not going anywhere" Gwen promised.  
"Right... Let's get this thing started then" she moved over, strapping Ianto down a little more, just to be sure he wasn't getting out.

Jack stood in front of him, holding the syringe ready to start extracting his blood at Efa's word and Gwen stood next to him, ready to give Jack something to drink if he needs it. Efa walked over and stood on his other side of Jack and stared at Ianto. She nodded at Jack, who stuck the syringe in his arm and took out the blood that was required, he stepped closer to Ianto and jabbed it into his neck, forcing the liquid into his body.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen- Injections:**

3:50pm, first injection.

Jack removed the syringe from Ianto's neck. Was a change meant to be seen after the first injection? No one knew. It didn't look like there was any change at all. Ianto's eyes were still black, his face was still stoic and his mouth showed that same evil smirk. His nose

was bleeding now though. He just hissed as the syringe was with drawn and glared. Everyone glared back. You could tell what everyone was thinking by the look they wore on their face.

Jack was just praying it worked. He'd just got Ianto back, if he was going to lose him again, he wasn't going to stop trying to kill himself until it worked. He needed Ianto to be alive again. If it worked, he knew he was going to have to say goodbye again at some point, but delaying it for as long as possible was a lot better than letting Ianto die like this. He wasn't about to let Ianto die at the hands of a monster who shouldn't be in his body in the first place. He was going to do everything in his power to get rid of the demon and give Ianto his body back. Efa had explained that a general exorcism has the possibility to kill Ianto if he really is as weak as the demon says and he couldn't afford to take chances. Not with Ianto. He was never going to let this happen to Ianto again. He didn't want to be over protective but he also didn't want to lose Ianto again. He couldn't think about how much pain Ianto must be going through, there's no way to know how long ago Ianto really lost full control, or if he ever had full control. He hated himself for not figuring it out sooner. How did he not notice that something was different with Ianto?

Efa was hoping that everything would turn out to be fine. She didn't have much faith in the method, not that she had faith in anything anymore. It was there last chance... There only chance. If this didn't work then she didn't know what to do. Suddenly her phone began to ring and she looked down at it, it was David again. She ignored it and turned her attention back to Ianto. Where attention needed to be. She turned her phone off so that it wouldn't bother her again. She was shaking, visibly shaking. She wanted to leave the room, collect her thoughts but she felt like her feet were nailed to the floor underneath her. She needed to get some fresh air but she couldn't just leave.

Inside Ianto's head he was screaming. Fighting. He could feel the demon grow weaker as the pure blood entered his body.

"You're going to lose" Ianto shouts inside his head. "I told you he'd figure it out, didn't I. I fucking told you!"

"A little human blood won't hurt me" the demon retorted.  
"Maybe a little won't, but I'm sure there's more to come!"

Ianto sat on the floor of his metaphorical cell in his head and waited patiently.

"Don't worry about me Jack" he said. "I can wait... Just like you did."

4:50pm, second injection.

Jack pulled the syringe out again. This time Ianto screamed as it was both injected and pulled out. This showed that it was at least having some effect which was a good sign. The demon seemed to be weakening, visibly weakening. His nose was bleeding and his eyes were occasionally going back to the blue colour of Ianto's eyes. Jack had asked for water three times by now and this was his fourth time asking. Gwen was more than happy to help and Efa was making sure the timing was right.

Ianto was still sitting down in the prison of his mind. Waiting patiently, he knew that Jack, Gwen and Efa were going to make it work. He believed in them. He had to believe in them. They were his last chance. This was all his fault. If only he hadn't of agreed to do it. He agreed to go to hell because that man said if he did there was a chance he'd see Jack again, now once again he had put the whole world in danger because of love. Once again Ianto's refusal to let go of the one he loved caused danger to the world. He couldn't even do love right.

"No, this doesn't matter. I'll apolagise. They'll sort me out and I can apolagise and Jack will forgive me like he always does because he loves me... I heard him say so."  
"Ianto, have you heard yourself? You sound so pathetic. This wasn't Jacks idea. Jack doesn't care about you, he's only trying to save the world."

5:50pm, third injection.

The screams were louder this time, much more reassuring. His eyes weren't black anymore at all. They'd started to bleed though, Efa said it was nothing to worry about but Jack couldn't help but to worry. Gwen put the bottle to his lips and tipped it up so that water rolled down his throat. They were almost out and Efa handed Gwen the stop watch and took the bottle off of her hands, going to get some more water. Jack was growing weaker too. Efa came back a few minutes later, bottle full to the top, she let Jack drink and handed it back to Gwen, taking to stop watch off her hands.  
"Ianto's not going to be happy when he finds out you let someone else use your stopwatch" Gwen joked, trying to lighten the situation.

Jack chuckled darkly although the laugh didn't reach his eyes.  
"What?" Efa asked.  
"You don't want to know" Gwen told her.

6:50, fourth injection.

Now the change was visible. Ianto or the demon was starting to babble. No one could understand what he was saying, it was too quiet to hear properly but Efa was sure it was Latin and since Ianto didn't know Latin, it was obvious that the demon was still in control but he was crying now too. This was a good thing, half way through he was getting more and more human with each injection.

They were half way through and Ianto could feel himself gaining control again, he could feel the demon getting weaker and become part of him, the weaker part of him. He was going to survive this, he was going to be able to put things right.

"What's he saying?" Jack asked.

Efa listened and put a hand over her mouth in disgust to keep herself from vomiting. He was describing it in such vivid detail that it made her sick.  
"He's says... He's saying that you won't survive and when this fail, he'll kill us all and... He says he'll walk over our dead corpses."

"You're not going anywhere all time I'm alive and I'm the stubborn type" Jack snarled.

7:50pm, fifth injection.

That was welsh he was muttering now. That meant Ianto was coming back.  
"What is he saying?" Jack asked, unable to understand the lanuage.

He made a mental note to learn it at some point. Gwen and Efa listened a lot more closely. Trying to make sense of what he was saying, he wasn't responding to them anymore, he wasn't glaring at them or saying anything about them. He was just mumbling, it was so quiet the two women really had to strain to listen. He was saying the same sentence over and over again.  
"Gallaf deimlo ei. Gallaf deimlo ei. Gallaf deimlo ei."

The two women looked at each other in confusion.  
"Gallaf deimlo ei" Efa repeated, clearer so Jack could hear.  
"What does that mean?"  
"He's saying, 'I can feel it' Jack" Gwen translated.  
"Feel what? The demon? Is it working?" Jack asked, "water!"  
Gwen put the bottle to his lips and tipped it up, allowing a few swallows before she pulled it away again. Jack was getting visibly weaker now too. His nose was also starting to bleed and the veins in his arms were showing up.

"Jack, mae'n gweithio. Jack, Jack, Jack"  
"Now what?"  
"He says it's working. That's what he feels, he can feel it working. We have to contuie!"  
Efa's phone rang again. David

8:50pm, sixth injection.

Only 2 more to go, Jack told himself, hoping to raise his sprites. He took another long drink and jabbed the needle into Ianto's neck. Watching his reaction, Ianto was still mumbling welsh.

"Peidiwch â phoeni am i mi, guys. Gallaf fynd ag ef, gallaf aros. Mae'n ddrwg gen i, mae hyn yn fy fai."

"He's telling us not to worry about him" Gwen informed them, removing the bottle from Jack's lips and taking a quick sip herself.  
"And he says he's sorry" Efa added, looking down at the stopwatch. "Only 2 more injections left. You're doing good Jack."  
"What happens after the last two injections?" Jack questioned.  
"You cut the palm of your hand and place it over Ianto's mouth" Efa said, searching her brain for the instructions.  
"Right, hold on, Yan, you're strong you can wait!"  
"I can wait" Ianto murmured back, that was english, he was getting stronger.  
"It's not your fault, Cariad. Hold on, we'll be together again soon."

"If only you knew Jack" Ianto was no longer in the cell of his mind. The demon was. "If only you knew... I promise, I will explain, Thank you Jack. Thank you for not giving up on me."

9:50pm, seventh injection.

"IT HURTS!" Ianto screamed at the top of lungs.  
"I know" Jack apologized and removed the now empty syringe from Ianto's neck. "Only one more after this, Ianto. Then it's over, I promise."  
Ianto was now able to hold a conversation, which was a good sign. It meant he was almost at full strength. Almost ready to be let go and then things could get back to normal... Well, as normal as is possible for Torchwood. Efa's phone rang again.

"Tell her to answer the phone!" The demon inside Ianto's head yelled. "Get her to answer, it's important!"

"How do you know?" Ianto asked.  
"I'm weak not dead, if it wasn't important, they would have stopped calling." 

"ANSWER THE PHONE EFA!" Ianto didn't mean to shout, but that seemed to be all he was capable off. "IF THAT PHONE RINGS ONE MORE TIME, I'LL GIVE UP!"

"Don't talk like that... Efa, answer it!" Jack ordered.

Efa handed Gwen the stop watch and left the room. Finally she pressed the accept button and put the phone to ear. Had a 10 minute conversation with a very distressed David who was worried back Efa and after refusing to tell him where she was so he could check up on her, she hung up and turned her phone off. He threatened to call the police if she didn't tell him the truth but since she was at home, she doubted it would matter anyway.

10:50pm, eighth injection.

"It's almost over, Ianto. It's almost over" Jack was crying now too and filled Ianto's veins with the last of his blood he could spare and threw the syringe away, picking up the blade and dragging it across his open palm before siling his palm over Ianto's mouth. There was a bright, white light and when Gwen and Efa could see again Jack was laying on the floor, bleeding and Ianto was more or less lifelessly slumped in the chair.


	16. Chapter 16

**Ianto's Return:**

(So this is the last chapter. I already have the idea for my next story and I'm working on it now. I seem to be working on nothing but Torchwood fics latley... Let me know what you though and thank you so much for reading this and giving me support. You guys are the best xx)

Chapter sixteen – Epilogue:

It was Jack who woke first. Gasping for breath desperately. He captured the attention of Efa who turned around to face him. Everything was so loud and bright. He was sure that the ringing in his ears was new too. No matter much he blinked he's eyes just didn't seem to adjust.  
"Jack?" she said, turning to him. "Gwen! He's awake" she shouted and after he groaned she apologised and lowered her voice. "Sorry, well, you're alive. I'm not sure how, you lost a lot of blood. But we can argue logic later. How are you feeling?"  
He closed his eyes again then opened them a few seconds later. At least the ringing had stopped. It sounds quieter to and he thinks his eyes might finally be adjusting to the light. He caught a glimpse of a body lying down on the metal table behind where Efa was standing. He could only see the lower half of the body but there was no mistaking those naked legs. It was Ianto.  
"Jack?" came Gwen's voice, her footsteps could be heard coming up the metal stairs and into the autopsy bay, she stood at his other side and looked down at him for a while smiling. Then she looked back up at Efa, "He's asleep. Someone should take him home."  
"I'll do it. How much did you say he'd forget?" Efa asked in return.  
"It should be two days; he'll forget you ever mentioned the ritual"  
"Great, thanks Gwen. I'll take him home now" she turned to Jack before she left, "you are not allowed to move until I get back. I still have a few tests to run" back to Gwen, "don't let him run around and keep an eye on Ianto, yeah?"  
"Yeah."

Then Efa started jogging away, down the stairs and over to Gwen's office. Where David Lawson lay asleep in the chair with his head resting on Gwen's desk. Efa shook her head lightly and lifted him up; swinging his arm around her shoulders she helped him up to her car through the tourist office. Thank god it was dark out. Otherwise this would have just looked weird. Granted, it still looked weird but because it was late at night she could just say he was drunk.

"Ianto" Jack said suddenly as he looked at the man lying lifelessly on the other autopsy table. He slung his legs over the edge.  
"Jack, Efa said you need to stay down, Ianto's fine!" Gwen protested. She wanted to pull him back and lay him down but she knew that if that was Rhys on the other table, she'd want to be by his side too.  
There were so many tubes and wires hooked up to Ianto's body and so many screens to read that Jack didn't know where to start. Ianto was wearing a hospital gown.  
"Efa insisted that we get him changed and cleaned. She found some hospital gowns in the cupboard, striped him, wiped him down, and hooked up to all this equipment. She's good you know we could use a doctor."  
"Yeah" Jack said distantly, staring down into Ianto's face. "Is he every going to wake?"  
"Efa said it could be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. There's also some other news but she said she's rather tell you herself. I agree. Now, please, Jack, lay back down."  
Jack sighed and complied with her orders. A few weeks. Would he really have to wait that long to hear Ianto's voice again? Was it really going to take that long? He didn't know if he could handle that.  
"Where did she go?" he asked, looking back up at Gwen who took a seat by the table.  
He just realized how cold the metal felt against the bare skin that hospital gown left exposed. Gwen wasn't sure she was supposed to answer. Jack properly wouldn't be happy with the answer but then, maybe he would understand.  
"She took David home. He raided her house because he was worried that she'd do the demon conversion ritual" she smiled lightly and looked away from Jack. "She said he was hysterical when she finally answered her phone. He didn't call the police like he said he would but he did break into her flat. Took the key out from under the doormat and let himself in. I think it's fair to say that she won't be keeping a key under the door mat anymore" Gwen explained.  
"Why was he here?"  
"She needed him to come over and check it worked. He grew up with a preacher and a demon hunter, although he shows no interest in either of those things. He wanted to help. I retconed him and she's taking him home."

...

When Efa came back she explained the news that she wanted to deliverer personally.  
"Basically. What the ritual did was combine demon Ianto with the normal Ianto. We didn't get rid of the demon we cured it. Made it human by merging it with Ianto's human soul and thanks to David, we know that there is still a tiny bit of Ianto that is... demon like. However, it is the smallest bit and it's not worth worrying about. They're human, they are not separate anymore. It's very confusing actually, I should have asked for a better explanation. The bottom line is... Ianto's immortal" she finished finally taking a deep breath and waiting for Jacks reaction.  
It took Jack a really long time to process what was said and when he did understand he still really didn't understand.  
"So" he began slowly.  
"So, looks like you're stuck with Ianto until the end of time" Efa was still cautious about how she spoke. Jack looked distant, like he still wasn't fully awake and maybe he wasn't. "He can't die Jack."  
"So" Jack repeated, still trying to figure out what words it was that he wanted to use to voice his thoughts. "I have him? Forever?"  
"Forever!"

Once the news had finally sunk in, Jack was allowed to get up and walk around a little. An hour later he was allowed to get changed back into his usual choice of attire. Efa ran several health tests and fitness test trying to figure out how it was possible to survive something like that. His blood levels were normal again. How? She poked him with needles and scanned him with equipment and wrote things down on paper that she had stuck to a clip board she was carrying. She was baffled. There had to be a logical explanation, there always is.  
"Efa, Efa, calm down. When you've been with Torchwood for a little bit longer, you'll understand that sometimes, logic isn't always an answer" Jack told her after a few more hours of being poked and prodded and pushed and pulled and examined.  
He was trying to hint that she got the job without actually saying the words but Efa wasn't paying attention to the job anymore. She wanted answers. Eventually Gwen made some coffee and fed her some biscuits and Efa set the logic aside and Jack wanted to know about all the tubes and wires that were poking into Ianto's skin. She showed him things and told him what they were, what they did.

"This one collects his urine. This one collects his faeces'. They have to be changed at least twice a day. This managed brain activity, this keeps track of heart beat. I set them up so that they beep loudly if there is a change in anything. If they go off when I'm not here, it's properly nothing but if they start flashing red... Call me."

...

It was 3 months until Ianto woke up and Jack refused to leave him in the hub alone and more often than not refused to go anywhere until he was awake. Jack slept twice in those few months, both times still at Ianto's side, clutching his hand tightly. Efa changed the urine and faeces bags twice a day and Gwen made coffee. Efa had to go out on a few weevil hunts because Jack refused to go. Unless there was an emergency, he refused to leave Ianto's side. Besides a few new pieces of tech and stray UFO, there was nothing that called for panic. This was lucky because it was always when Torchwood was vulnerable that aliens choose to attack. When Ianto did wake up, it was late. Jack was actually falling asleep when there was a gasp and the machines beeped and flashed red and he panicked. He called Efa, of course he did and Efa called Gwen and they rushed over to find Jack trying to talk to a distressed Ianto who had no idea who he really way. Eventually, they all got him to calm down and they told him who he was. It took 4 years for him to get all his memories back. The important ones anyway. Who he was, what he did, his family, his partner, his job. He also remembers things that weren't important and things that only brought on pain. He had to experience the loss of Lisa all over again; he had to experience dying again. Most of the memories came back in nightmares and he's wake up in cold sweats, shaking and crying and screaming and Jack would have to whisper sweet nothings into his ear and run a hand through his sweat damped hair and stay up with him all night.

After 5 years, Jack finally paid and retconed a gang of builders for managed to put in a bedroom. A nice warm double bed, a wardrobe, a privet bathroom. Efa got the job, although she didn't realise she actually had the job until Ianto was all better and she was getting ready to leave and Jack finally gave in and said:  
"Efa you got the job now put your stuff down, and help us catch this blowfish!"  
"I know I got the Job Jack, I just wanted to hear you say it" she replied, throwing her stuff into a previously empty office that she choose not long after she was finally allowed to walk around the hub without being watched constantly. Ianto had to begin from his first torchwood duties. Archivist. He worked his way up to being a field team member.

Efa and Alis didn't stay together for very long but this time they were able to say goodbye to each other. It wasn't an argument and one just storming out on the other. They said goodbye and they moved on. Efa did end up getting back with David again and after four years of a happy relationship, they were married.

Ianto had to meet his family all over again. His parents were both dead so, he really only had to speak to his sister and she was happy to accept him back after she got over the shock of him being alive and well. All was well with Torchwood again. Until the next crisis of course but that is a different story.


End file.
